Wednesday Top of the Scroll: Federal government rolls out ‘extraordinary actions’ to prop up Lake Powell
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced two measures [Tuesday] to boost water levels in Lake Powell, keeping them high enough to continue generating hydropower at the Glen Canyon Dam. Both moves are being framed as painful but necessary band-aids, cutting into reserves elsewhere in the region to stave off the worst effects of a decades-long drought that has sapped the nation’s second-largest reservoir. One measure will send water from upstream to help refill Lake Powell. About 500,000 acre-feet of water will be released from Flaming Gorge Reservoir, which straddles the border between Wyoming and Utah.
Related articles:
- U.S. Bureau of Reclamation: News release – Reclamation’s drought response actions will boost Lake Powell
- Associated Press: US to hold back Lake Powell water to protect hydropower
- Los Angeles Times: As drought crisis deepens, government will release less water from Colorado River reservoir
- Colorado Public Radio: The federal government will make the unprecedented move to hold back water in drought-stricken Lake Powell
- Salt Lake Tribune: ‘It feels like a dying reservoir’: Deltas of sediment are pushing into Glen Canyon as Lake Powell disappears
- Bloomberg Law: Historic Drought Forces Feds to Withhold Water From States (2)
- Los Angeles Times: Skeleton in barrel revealed by receding waters of Lake Mead are of a gunshot victim, police say