Built for political purposes, the original goal of Glen Canyon Dam was water security; that is, [to serve as a method of] water storage to ensure delivery to the Lower Basin and protection of the water dowry of the Upper Basin states.
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Reference: https://www.glencanyon.org/lake-powell-reservoir-a-failed-solution/ Lake Powell: Unnecessary for Water Delivery
Lake Powell is a development I've observed and commented on during the past 8-10 years. It's an issue that impacts the Coachella Valley in California, and the Imperial Irrigation District.
Private communication to John Shanahan Lake Powell is a Huge Water Waster Ed Olinek September 4, 2022
Here's the thing: The Lake Powell project was doomed from the start!!! It [Lake Powell] essentially serves as a water meter to measure the upper basin’s delivery to the lower basin. However, [even when discounting the impact of a drought] it is a “leaky faucet” which makes delivering that water more difficult for the upper basin.
Even during good times the water demand required to support the exploding population growth rate of the lower basin, i.e., Arizona, California, Nevada,Utah and Mexico, is (and always was) an unsustainable model for distribution of Colorado River water that was intended to satisfy documented (& calculated) water consumption demands! It was a political disaster from the start! Why was Lake Powell a disaster from the 'get-go'?
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Sad to say - Lake Powell is a Huge Water Waster
The upper basin [upstream of Arizona] is required to deliver 8.23 million acre-feet (MAF) of Colorado River water to the lower basin [Arizona, Nevada,Utah, California] and Mexico every year.
Losing another 1 MAF of water at Powell reservoir each year, the basin [Powell Reservoir] is left to satisfy the water demands of 16.5 MAF with 'just' 12.5 MAF. The Western water delivery system is inefficient and it is [and always was] only a matter of time before it fails completely.
Glenn Canyon Dam and Lake Powell
The writers of the 1922 Colorado River Compact based the annual delivery requirement on a ten-year average to allow for annual fluctuations in river flow. However, we now know that annual delivery requirements were based on flawed projections suggesting that annual river flow was equal to 16.5 MAF annually. More than eighty years since the Compact was signed, the average annual flow has proven to be closer to 13.5 MAF.
**Note The earliest official government flow records from 1906-2003, demonstrate that without Glen Canyon Dam, the upper basin would have been able to deliver the 2
Glen Canyon Dam is unnecessary and counterproductive to the water storage and delivery purposes for which it was built.
● The water lost is Upper Basin water: Glen Canyon Dam actually makes it more difficult to fulfill the delivery requirement of 8.23 MAF of water to the Lower Basin. Based upon the Bureau’s own historical flow data (1906-2002), with water wasting Powell reservoir, there is a 1:1000 chance the Upper Basin would be unable to deliver the required 8.23 MAF of water. Without the water loss at Lake Powell, the odds decrease to 1:30,000. The Economic Perspective As the demand for water in the Southwest steadily grows, the utility of a reservoir that wastes nearly 1 MAF every year is suspect. In San Diego water prices – based upon the price used in the ongoing negotiations for the sale of Colorado River water by the Imperial Irrigation District to San Diego – the water lost at Lake Powell each year is worth $225 million dollars. The fair market value of the water wasted by Glen Canyon Dam is far greater than the net income from the sale of electricity produced by the dam; essentially, the “fuel” costs more than the product being produced. Since 1963, more than 34 MAF of water has been lost from Lake Powell; worth about $9 billion.
Compact required 75 MAF to the lower basin and Mexico in every single ten-year period on the record.
Each year, enough water is wasted by the dam [due to [annual evaporation and bank seepage] that could supply the entire City of Los Angeles. That’s three times Nevada’s annual allotment and enough to supply the Salt Lake Valley for five years.
It [Lake Powell] essentially serves as a water meter to measure the upper basin’s delivery to the lower basin. However, it is a “leaky faucet” which makes delivering that water more difficult for the upper basin.
● Since completion of the Dam, more than 34 MAF of Lake Powell water has been lost to evaporation and bank storage.
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● Lake Powell loses more than 6% of the Colorado River’s annual flow — more than three times Nevada’s annual allotment.
Due to its high desert location and huge surface area, Lake Powell loses an average of 860,000 AF of water annually to evaporation and bank seepage. Note: This doesn't include the impact of drought conditions!
It is obvious - that collateral impact of the project was not considered by scientists & engineers, as well as decision-makers, at that time (1922).
So, for sake of brevity and simplification of debate, I limited my scope of discussion to incorporate, only, the Mission Statement that prevailed at that time (I.e., The1922 Colorado River Compact), which was: "Lake Powell essentially serves as a water meter to measure the upper basin’s delivery (at a prescribed rate) to the lower basin."
NOTE: While composing this essay, I considered addressing collateral result/s attributable to the Glen Canyon Dam Project but decided against bringing these concerns forward at this time.
It is recognized that since it was commissioned the Project provided several salient benefits. However the main purpose of the Glen Canyon Dam still remains as stated above.
With this in mind, I tried to focus my essay to support this conclusion: An unintended result of Powell Lake is it is now a “leaky faucet” which makes delivering the originally prescribed rate of water more difficult for the upper basin to support."
Robert Turner is a Canadian attorney. He has been a key discussion partner for Ed Olinek on this topic.
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If we take Lake Powell out of the model, the evaporation cloud and shoreline absorption pattern differs from the original characteristics that prevailed in both Colorado River Basins prior to 1922.
We live in a beautiful world. People must manage their presence in it so as to respect nature and not waste wonderful resources. 5
