Colorado River Reservoirs Are So Low, Government Is Delaying Releases

The extent of Lake Powell is at the moment at an elevation of three,523 ft, 177 ft beneath capability. The intakes that enable water by way of the dam to generate hydropower are at 3,490 ft.

Hydropower is beneficial in sustaining the soundness {of electrical} grids partly as a result of the quantity of electrical energy generated can rapidly be modified to assist the grid match demand. In her letter, Ms. Trujillo mentioned that if Powell reached 3,490 ft, “the western electrical grid would expertise unsure danger and instability.”

As well as, she wrote, water provides to Western and Southwestern states “can be topic to elevated operational uncertainty.” Water provides to Web page, Ariz., close to the dam, and a close-by Native tribe, would particularly be in danger, she wrote, as a result of their consumption is at about the identical elevation because the hydropower intakes.

The dam itself would face “unprecedented reliability challenges,” Ms. Trujillo wrote, as a result of with the hydropower intakes above the water degree, the lake water must be routed by way of the dam utilizing decrease tunnels that weren’t designed for steady use. “We’re approaching working situations for which now we have solely very restricted precise working expertise — and which occurred practically 60 years in the past,” she wrote.

Brad Udall, a senior local weather scientist at Colorado State College, mentioned the issues within the letter in regards to the reliability of the ability grid and of the dam had not likely been raised in all of the drought contingency planning over the previous few a long time.

“We’ve expended a whole lot of effort in producing plans” for what occurs when the reservoirs fall to essential ranges, Mr. Udall mentioned. “And what we’re discovering out, sadly, is that these plans are turning out to be utterly insufficient. Unexpectedly these new points come up and haven’t having beforehand been thought-about and are actually essential.”