The Bureau of Reclamation is taking action intended to prevent the waters of Lake Powell from falling below the level needed to operate the Glen Canyon Dam hydropower plant amid ongoing drought.
Lake Powell’s water elevation was at about 3,522 ft as of May 4. That put the water just 32 ft above the minimum level needed to run the power plant on the Utah-Arizona border, and bureau officials say it’s the lowest the lake’s surface has sat at since it was filled in the 1960s. To protect the reservoir from dropping further, the bureau plans to release an additional 500,000 acre-ft of water from Flaming Gorge Reservoir upstream. Also, the bureau will reduce the amount of water released from the Glen Canyon Dam this year from 7.48 million acre-ft to 7 million acre-ft.