Two years ago, water managers opted to siphon water away from Flaming Gorge to save Lake Powell, dropping it about 20 feet. Thanks to a record-breaking winter, Flaming Gorge has largely recovered. But it has locals worried about the future.
Drawing down Flaming Gorge to support Lake Powell in the future, however, could make the reservoir too warm to continue supporting fish downriver.
An arid environment like the Colorado River Basin needs some dams, Weisheit conceded, especially after its population has swelled to tens of millions of people.“Especially on the Colorado,” he said, “because it’s the muddiest river in the world.”. There, the river drops its load and the reservoir loses its capacity to store water inch by inch, year by year. Flaming Gorge, however, is located closer to the pristine runoff from the Wind River Range and Uintah Mountains.
“Under any sort of politically conceivable reduction in consumptive use, on average, total storage in lakes Powell and Mead will only ever be 50% of capacity,” said Schmidt, the USU researcher and lead author of the study. “Where should we store the water? Powell, Mead or 50-50?” On the other hand, the basin stands to lose a lot of hydroelectricity, along with recreational opportunities, like fishing and boating, at Lake Powell. But those uses“I believe it is wrong to characterize the future of these reservoirs as an inevitable,” Schmidt said. “The future of these reservoirs will be the result of very intentional human decisions.”
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