The situation is critical: if the lake’s water levels fall another 32 feet, all hydroelectric production will be halted at the Glen Canyon Reservoir. The West’s water crisis, caused by climate change, is now causing a potential energy crisis for millions of people in the southwest who rely on the dam as an energy source. In the last few years, the Glen Canyon Dam has lost about 16 percent of its energy generation capacity. Lake Powell’s water levels have dropped by about 100 feet in the last three years.
Bob Martin, Glen Canyon’s deputy energy manager, pointed to a so-called “bath ring” on the canyon’s walls. White rock miles are a problem in this region.
“That’s where the water whitened the rock – and that’s how high the water was at one point,” Martin told CNN.
As water levels decrease, so does hydropower production. The dam uses the gravitational force of the Colorado River to generate energy for as many as 5.8 million homes and businesses in seven states, including Nevada and New Mexico.
Brian Hill runs the public energy company in Page, Arizona, where the federal dam is located, and likens the situation to the Last Judgment.
“We knock on the door of the Day of Judgment – Judgment Day is when we have no water to give to anyone.”
Forty percent of Paige’s power comes from Glen Canyon Dam. Without it, they will be forced to compensate for this electricity with fossil fuels such as natural gas, which emits global warming gases and will exacerbate the West’s water crisis.
The loss of electricity in the dam would also mean higher energy costs for customers, as the price of fossil fuels skyrocketed.
“If nothing changes, in other words, if we don’t start getting some moisture for Paige, in particular, we’re looking for an additional 25 to 30 percent in electricity costs,” Hill told CNN.
Arash Moalemi, deputy general manager of the Navajo Tribal Authority, told CNN that the loss of power at Glen Canyon Dam would be devastating to the Navajo community.
“We have 40% unemployment, and our per capita income is just over $ 10,000,” Moalemi said. “Higher energy prices may mean that some people cannot heat or cool their homes.”
The federal government – which technically owns the hydropower flowing through federally managed dams – sells electricity to states for what is often far below the commercial market price. In the worst case scenario, the interior ministry predicts the dam could stop producing energy by January.
The agency is now weighing urgent action that would save the dam more time.
In a letter to seven western states this month, the Interior Ministry recommended that less water be released this year from Lake Powell in the states downstream. The proposal calls for the retention of the equivalent of 42.6 billion gallons of water in Lake Powell, which will mean a deeper reduction in the amount of water people can use in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.
More than 110 billion gallons of water have been retained so far this year.
This impossible choice comes as new images show that Lake Mead – Powell’s neighbor downstream and the country’s largest reservoir – has fallen to such historically low levels that one of the lake’s original water intake valves from 1971 is now is exposed above the waterline.
Inside the Glen Canyon, the current water level is still producing energy.
There are eight generators in the dam’s power plant. The force of the water passing through 15-foot-diameter pipes hits and rotates turbines, which then generate energy. If the water levels in Lake Powell fall by just another 32 feet, these generators will stop spinning.
The climate crisis is forcing both federal and state governments to make difficult choices and take drastic measures just to maintain electricity and water for Americans in the Southwest.
The Interior Ministry is expected to make a final decision on how to deal with the difficult situation at the dam by early May.
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