The Bureau of Reclamation finalized its plan 2023 Drought Response Operations Plan, which centers on the recovery of reservoirs upstream from Lake Powell.
“We are using this opportunity to prepare for future dry conditions by preserving and retaining storage in our upstream reservoirs,” Deputy Regional Director of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Katrina Grantz said in a May 26 press release. "We also remain cautious. We know how quickly things can change, and we will continue to monitor the hydrology and will adjust our projections and operations accordingly."
Lake Powell, which straddles the Arizona/Utah border, is the largest reservoir for the Colorado River. Since 1999, there have been drastic changes in the water levels in Lake Powell. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has been tracking the lake's levels with the Landsat satellites on its Earth Observatory website for more than 20 years.
In early 1999, water levels were relatively high and the water was a dark blue; however, within three years, canyon walls were exposed around the lake, NASA data showed. By May 2004, the northwestern branch feeding the reservoir was cut off from the reservoir because "the shallow water upstream could not crest raised areas in the lakebed" the report states. By early 2005, “the northwest side branch of Lake Powell remained cut off from the rest of the reservoir.
Although increased precipitation alleviated the drought enough that by 2008, the lake levels had begun to rebound, a lack of significant snowfall between 2012-2017, along with a long-term drought in the southwest, resulted in very little snowpack to increase the levels in Lake Powell, according to the Bureau of Reclamation release.
After a rainy, snowy winter this past year and the melting of record snowfalls, the Bureau of Reclamation said that Lake Powell shouldn’t need a boost this year. The Bureau predicts the projected inflow to be more than 14 million acre-feet of water through the end of the water year on Sept. 30.
Water levels were rising by approximately one foot per day in May, the Washington Post reported May 11. Despite the impressive recovery of Lake Powell, the rise in the water levels won't relieve the effects of the recent years' megadrought, the Post reported. Bart Leeflang, Colorado River manager for the Central Utah Water Conservancy District, said in the article that the increased runoff may give “a year’s worth of breathing room.”
“The crisis is still very real and very much in front of us,” Leeflang said in the article.
