Can the Hoover Dam Ever Fill Again
Why Filling Lake Mead First is a bad idea
By Sinjin Eberle
Rebecca Solnit'due south recent article, Letter of the alphabet to a Drowned Canyon, is a beautiful expose on the situation facing Lake Powell and the greater Colorado River. While she brings upwardly some important points, nosotros disagree with some of her assertions.
Here's why.
In 2015 I was fortunate to exist included on a moving picture expedition across the Colorado River Basin with the CNN tv bear witness The Wonder Listing with Bill Weir . We followed the river, from its headwaters loftier in the Colorado Rockies to the barren desert in Southern California and Nevada over the course of a couple of weeks, filming locations and talking to people, breathing in the desert air and lying on our backs at night shooting time lapses of spinning galaxies millions of lite years abroad. I have known since a young male child that in that location was a strong desire by many people who would love nothing more than to rip down the dam and free Glen Coulee — the heartfelt yearning to right a wrong, finally bring justice to the place by tossing a few well-timed sticks of dynamite over the edge, diggings an orifice in the concrete just large plenty to allow the power of water to do the rest. I read Abbey's Monkey Wrench Gang, I get information technology. Just it wasn't until I was on the CNN trip did I discover some other choice, maybe a better one that may not accept the explosive drama of charges of TNT, simply would both rectify the immediate emotional gash in the spirits of so many people. This solution could besides be the vehicle for saving enormous quantities of the most valuable resource in the southwest: water.
The term Fill Mead First is even catchy by name, and the moniker itself instantly conjures upward a seemingly logical, but misguided, strategy for water supply management on the Colorado River. The idea is this — instead of maintaining the pair of huge reservoirs in one of the hottest and driest regions of the country, drain down Lake Powell and move almost of its water through Grand Coulee and shop information technology in Lake Mead. Since both lakes are less than half full, and Lake Mead is the larger of the two and lies in less porous stone, it would exist able to handle the storage of both (in the situation we currently detect ourselves with in the Colorado River Bowl). Lake Mead would do the storage, and Glen Canyon could brainstorm the procedure of healing itself.
Looking down from infinite, the Colorado River flows (generally) due south through eastern Utah, with the San Juan joining it from the east just in a higher place the Utah-Arizona border, forming Glen Coulee (and at present, Lake Powell). 57 lake miles afterwards, the Colorado and then passes through Glen Canyon Dam most the town of Page, Arizona, before flowing more than 280 miles through Thou Coulee, before pausing once again in the slackwater of Lake Mead behind Hoover Dam. Lake Mead is the largest manmade reservoir in the country, spreading across a vast area in the middle of the parched Mojave Desert. Together, when full, the two reservoirs store over 50 million acre feet of water (an acre foot is the corporeality of h2o that would fill a football-field size puddle, ane pes deep). Lake Mead stores about 27 million acre anxiety (MAF), while Lake Powell stores merely over 24 MAF — importantly, when full.
Power generation is another important component of the dams, and the fact that hydropower works best when the lake behind the dam is full; more pressure from all that water turns the turbines more than efficiently. As the h2o level behind the dam drops, pressure on the turbine decreases, losing the ability to turn them faster and generate maximum power. Drib the lake depression enough, and the turbines cannot plow at all, rendering them useless.
The Make full Mead First logic reads similar this — because Lake Powell is and so expansive, covering roughly 250 square miles when full, with highly porous sandstone underlying the lake seemingly seeping millions of gallons of water every year, added to many tons of sediment coming down the river and settling on the lesser of the lake year subsequently year later year; if Lake Powell were drained to a level where information technology was basically no longer a lake, bypassing Glen Canyon Dam, all that water could exist nerveless in a single, larger pool, in Lake Mead. Lake Powell would shrink back to a figment of itself, like a shriveled earthworm lying on a hot sidewalk, with all its lake h2o living in Mead. Glen Canyon could then be allowed the process of reviving itself, returning to its majestic and spiritual celebrity. Billions of gallons of Colorado River water would be saved, and outdoor recreationalists immature and one-time could of a sudden savor in the renewed glow of a long-lost lover. This pair of vastly depleted lakes (Mead is not quite forty% full while Powell is holding barely one-half of its chapters) could be turned into ane, topped out, more efficient reservoir.
The problem is, it'south likewise soon, and the scientific discipline doesn't work out. Non yet.
There are 5 fundamental reasons why the Fill Mead Start argument doesn't concord h2o, and while each of them on their ain could be a skilful enough reason to look by the reality of the state of affairs, together they brand a compelling example for keeping Glen Canyon Dam in place, at least for at present. Brand no fault, so many people would be thrilled to encounter the solution that the original engineer who designed the dam, Floyd Dominy, stated himself. The best manner to breach Glen Canyon Dam is not blow it up, but drill some behemothic holes in the bypass tunnels and let the water essentially rot out the lesser of the dam. Who needs all those theatrics when you can merely let the innate power of h2o and some flashy cavitation practice the job for you?
Recently, highly regarded writer Rebecca Solnit published an article almost her experience with Lake Powell, and described an incredibly beautiful fourth dimension in Dungeon Canyon and surrounding slots, while explaining some history and purpose behind the creation of Lake Powell. Almost the end of her piece, though, Ms. Solnit veers off into the wrong lane, crashing into some more contemporary scientific discipline that fifty-fifty some detractors are coming to agree with. Three of the five cardinal arguments that Fill Mead Outset proponents use to brand their case have simply been proven incorrect. A recent, comprehensive study out of Utah State Academy, authored by Jack Schmidt, has finally put some real scientific discipline and methodological practice behind the assumptions driving the Make full Mead Get-go argument. The other two are but a mix of authoritative reality coupled with the common cold hard truth of growth and sustainability in one of the fastest growing regions of the country, the tradeoff being the signing of the expiry warrant for at least five more western rivers.
Evaporation from the surface Lake Powell is often the first point cited by those who wish the lake abroad. Undoubtedly, a giant body of water sitting in the center of a southwestern desert does evaporate huge quantities of valuable water. Some people gauge that Lake Powell on its ain evaporates around 600,000 acre feet of h2o per year, and eye-popping amount on the surface. The logic goes that if much of that water was moved down to Lake Mead, the surface evaporation betwixt the two lakes would dramatically decrease, since but ane lake is sprawling beyond the desert. But it's simulated, and the Schmidt study concludes that if at that place is essentially whatever presence of water in Lake Powell, that even equally it is drained down the evaporation would exist essentially the same. Since it is unlikely that Powell would always exist truly empty, moving near of its water to Mead would be a launder rather than a significant benefit.
Seepage through the sandstone is besides ordinarily thought about when it comes to h2o loss. That'southward because Powell sits in a highly porous Navajo and Wingate sandstone strata, h2o must exist seeping from inside the lake, through the sandstone, and "abroad" in cracking quantities. Again, the Schmidt written report refutes this merits. In their research, Schmidt's study shows that water losses through seepage are much less than in years past. The decision may exist that the stone has now go so saturated that it has essentially armored itself from more than significant water loss — the kitchen colander has become more similar a stainless-steel mixing basin. Information technology is likely that the seepage loss was significant in the early decades of the lake, simply now, not and so much.
With 2 major, silty, sandy western rivers dumping into one giant, stagnant pool of h2o in the middle of a hot climate, another concern nearly the dwindling usefulness of Lake Powell is that it is filling upward with sediment. And generally speaking, it is, but non the way nearly people call back. In my youth, our family unit would run the San Juan River from Mexican Hat to Dirt Hills Crossing at least in one case a yr. My starting time trip was when I was about 10 years old, and each chance was glorious. I remember days of drifting past a spectacular slot canyon called Oljeto Launder, rowing casually onto the flat area of Lake Powell, and just as the electric current began to slow, the parking surface area would magically appear at the takeout — only like someone had planned it. Merely as the years went on, the rowing became harder and longer, a real slog out in the hot sun — a few years agone it seemed like we spent the amend part of a total twenty-four hours dragging our rafts off sandbars the unabridged stretch past Grand Gulch, and the mouth of Oljeto Wash was behind a behemothic, xx-ft tall wall of sand. Which perfectly illustrates another indicate in the Schmidt report — the sediment is not primarily gathering behind the dam, information technology is settling far upstream as the rivers enter the lake. The San Juan enters Lake Powell at mile 57, while the Colorado slows downwardly starting at Hite, 140 miles from the dam itself. As that h2o slows, it drops the sand and silt it carried downwards from the loftier country at the dual, gaping mouths of the lake, non at the foot closest to the dam. In December, 2015, I paddled from Halls Crossing to Folio — when nosotros put in at Halls the lake was brown, but when nosotros took out at Antelope Betoken the water was blue — most of the sediment had settled out beyond the 93 miles and 7 years information technology takes the water to move from one end of the lake to the other. Jack Schmidt and his team reviewed a 2005 sonar study, mapping generally where the sediment is being deposited. The reply is that the underwater mountain of sediment is dozens of miles upstream from the dam, and at the charge per unit information technology is creeping west, the sediment trouble of Lake Powell is decades from having any meaningful impact.
The fourth master point is a legal ane, autonomously from the scientific realm of the Utah Land study. In 1922, the Colorado River Compact divided upward the river into 2 parts, the Upper Basin and the Lower Bowl. The line of demarcation between the 2 identified is a gauging station at Lee'south Ferry, Arizona, but before the rivers slips gently towards the G Coulee. The formula was pretty uncomplicated — using an uncommonly wet 10-year weather bike equally the baseline, the authors of the compact causeless that there was about 15 million acre feet of water in the river every year. They and so divided the river every bit — nearly 7.v MAF for the Upper Basin states (Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and New Mexico) and 7.5 MAF for the Lower Basin (Arizona, California, and Nevada). Simple enough. A decade or so later, Mexico came into the picture and negotiated a scrap of water too, since the Colorado River flowed over their border — that amount is well-nigh one.5 MAF. That elementary math already takes more water out of the river that was originally assumed existed (seven.v + 7.v + i.five = 16.five MAF) and leaving nothing for the health of the river itself. As a result, the Upper Basin states must, by law, flow 8.23 MAF of water per year (on a 10-yr rolling boilerplate) past the gauge at Lee'south Ferry, keeping the lower bowl states moisture. Generally speaking, the river has rarely "really" had more than nigh 13 MAF flowing through it, and with climate impacts looming, the state of affairs could become much worse. Subsequently, through all of these negotiations, Lake Powell was built to provide storage for 24 1000000 acre feet of water for the Upper Basin state'south legal obligation to the Lower Basin. If Lake Powell were to disappear, that 24 meg acre feet of storage would have to be replaced "somewhere."
The river has rarely "actually" had more than than about 13 MAF flowing through it, and with climate impacts looming, the situation could get much worse.
Imagine the upshot being that to accommodate this reality, at to the lowest degree four or v more Upper Basin rivers might accept to be dammed in order to replace that storage. I could imagine the first to become might exist at Echo Park on the Yampa, the scene for the fight that condemned Glen Canyon in the first place — David Brower famously said that a specific battle to destroy a place might be won, but the natural site for that dam would never become away — it would always be a target. Another dam on the Upper Colorado. A dam on the Animas or another one on the San Juan. Some other dam on the Green. Another dam on the Gunnison?
Are nosotros as a people willing to sign the decease certificate of at least 4 to v more rivers in order to free Glen Canyon?
Lastly, an administrative betoken — final yr, the US Department of the Interior signed a new 20-year operations program for Glen Canyon Dam. Essentially a stake in the ground nigh how to manage the lake well into the time to come, when the likelihood of a more timely reevaluation of the worthiness of Glen Canyon is more appropriate.
In Ms. Solnit'southward commodity, she claims that there is a serious movement afoot to implement the Make full Mead First idea, and advance the procedure of decommissioning Glen Coulee Dam. To be sure, there are proficient people pushing this idea, and have been for years. People who want more than anything to come across the lake gone and Glen Coulee freed from these shackles. Simply the existent solutions are system-wide, collaborative efforts, like those undertaken by the seven basin states to support the river overall. There are hopes, and in that location are assumptions, but a move to bring downwards the dam prematurely just doesn't exist.
What must continue, is an honest, collaborative, comprehensive, and thoughtful endeavor to stabilize and support the Colorado River system equally it at present is, in 2017.
What there is, and what must continue, is an honest, collaborative, comprehensive, and thoughtful effort to stabilize and support the Colorado River system as it now is, in 2017. The reality is that states like Arizona are realizing, and taking strong leadership roles both on their own and regionally, to secure and stabilize the losses in Lake Mead, such that certainly calamity does not occur through legally mandated cutbacks.
Under the Obama Administration, sincere efforts to broker some legally binding improvements to water direction in the Southwest were progressing, and now under the Trump Administration the future is less clear. Mexico wants to participate in the process of stabilizing the river, not just for its own certainty, but also to help revive the Colorado River Delta, improving and sustaining information technology over fourth dimension. The Salton Ocean needs attention, as a public health crisis is imminent, and the State of California is finally taking action to address that business concern. And non-traditional partners, similar private foundations, major h2o providers, and disquisitional agronomical interests are coming together to think through real solutions for supporting the Colorado River organization as a whole, rather than ignoring the realities of h2o shortage and simply claiming what they accept legal rights to. The Native American tribes are involved, like the Gila River Reservation and Tohono O'Odham people of Arizona. The Navajo, the Havasupai, and the Hualapai are all looking at how their h2o rights play into this larger reality.
This is the real attempt that must be supported and avant-garde. If we stabilize the system, doing the best nosotros can to fill Lake Mead AND Lake Powell, securing and working towards potentially creating a surplus of water in the Colorado River, and improving river health basin-wide, then, and only so, might conservationists pursue the dream of restoring Glen Canyon. Personally, I'd love to encounter the canyon from below, not merely from in a higher place. Simply correct now, the best thing for the river and the basin's communities is to keep our eye on the ball, exist patient, and piece of work towards the correct solution for the Southwest, and the Colorado River nosotros all love and forty 1000000 of us depend upon.
Update — this version contains edits from the original story, which incorrectly cited 1 detail around seepage from the Schmidt study, as well as nuance with regards to efforts around decommissioning Glen Canyon Dam.
Source: https://americanrivers.medium.com/why-filling-lake-mead-first-is-a-bad-idea-ec1bcbf12c07
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