WATER SECURITYProblems with Glen Canyon Dam Could Jeopardize Water Flowing to Western States
Without upgrades to the Glen Canyon dam’s infrastructure, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s ability to get water downstream to the lower Colorado River basin as required by the Colorado River Compact could be in jeopardy. This may be, in the words of concerned groups, “the most urgent water problem” for the Colorado River and the 40 million people who rely on it.
A new memo from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is raising concern about the infrastructure at the Glen Canyon Dam and its ability to deliver water downstream should levels at Lake Powell continue to decline.
Environmental groups are calling it “the most urgent water problem” for the Colorado River and the 40 million people who rely on it.
Water stored at Lake Powell, the country’s second-largest reservoir, typically moves through the Glen Canyon Dam hydropower turbines; the Glen Canyon Power Plant produces about 5 billion kilowatt hours of power each year, distributed to Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and Nebraska, according to the Bureau of Reclamation.
Below the turbines are the dam’s river outlet works, a separate set of steel pipes originally designed to release excess water. If Lake Powell were to drop below the elevation of 3,490 feet, the outlet works would be the only way to convey water through the dam and downstream to the 30 million people and billion-plus-dollar industries that rely on the lower Colorado River basin.
In February 2023, lake levels reached an all-time low of 3,521.95 feet, nearly 30 feet away from forcing the bureau to use the outlet works.
But a March 26 memo from the Bureau of Reclamation suggests those outlet works aren’t as reliable as previously thought.
“There are concerns with relying on the river outlet works as the sole means of sustained water releases from Glen Canyon Dam,” the memo reads, noting that the bureau should “not rely” on the outlet works to release water downstream.
Without upgrades to the dam’s infrastructure, the bureau’s ability to get water downstream to the lower Colorado River basin as required by the Colorado River Compact could be in jeopardy. Even after record-breaking snowfall in 2023 and an above average 2024 winter, Lake Powell remains at about 32% full, according to data from the bureau. And scientists estimate flows in the river have decreased by roughly 20% over the last century, with warming temperatures resulting in a 10% decrease in runoff.
