Bureau of Reclamation employees give presentation on Glen Canyon Dam

Posted

Two employees at the Bureau of Reclamation gave a presentation at the Page Public Library on Sept. 20 about the history, current status and future plans for operations at Glen Canyon Dam.

Gus Levy, the “new guy” in charge of dam operations, and Regional Public Information Officer Becky Bryant shared a slide show titled “Colorado River Basin” at the presentation, which was part of the Glen Canyon Conservancy Speaker Series.  

Levy and Bryant explained how more than 100 years ago, the Colorado River Compact – an agreement between the Upper Basin and Lower Basin states – determined the amount of water each state was to receive from the Colorado River.

According to Bryant, the amount of water identified in the agreement was based on 30 years of river-flow data that turned out to be among the wettest 30 years on record at the time. The compact was therefore agreed upon based on more water than actually existed in the river in 1922. 

Now, more than 40 million people rely on the water from the Colorado River. More than 5 million acres are irrigated.  Hydropower in the Colorado River reservoir system, at full capacity, generates 4,200 megawatts of electrical power.  

With the current drought in its 23rd year, and with temperatures increasing over the past century, the amount of rain and snow that provides the bulk of the water to the Colorado River from the west side of the Rockies and the San Juan Mountains has decreased, making the 100-year-old miscalculation even worse.  

As a result, the shortfall between the water allocated to the states and what is available is greater today than before Glen Canyon Dam was built.  

The Bureau of Reclamation expects that by the end of 2022, both Lake Mead and Lake Powell will be at 25% capacity.  In the winter of 2021-2022, the inflow was the second lowest since 1964. 

Glen Canyon Dam produces 75% of the Upper Basin’s energy. Lower lake levels reduce energy production because there isn’t as much force from the water acting on the turbines. Since 2000, power production has decreased as much as 43%.

In its 2022 Drought Response Action, the bureau reduced the flow down the river from 7.48 million acre-feet (MAF) per year to 7.0 MAF. From May 2022 to April 2023, Lake Powell will receive 0.5 MAF from Flaming Gorge in Utah and Wyoming. In 2021, Lake Powell received 0.161 MAF from Flaming Gorge.

On a cross-section of Glen Canyon Dam shown at the lecture, the bottom of the water tunnels for power generation are at 3,490 feet above mean sea level, the lowest elevation at which power can be generated. “Dead Pool,” the bottom of the intake for the jet tubes, is 3,370 feet.

Levy talked about the water supply for the City of Page. He said Page’s water supply currently comes from the inside face of the dam at elevation 3,488 feet, about 2 feet below the lowest intake for the turbines. According to lakepowell.water-data.com, Lake Powell’s elevation was 3,529.35 feet on Sept. 20.

The bureau has already purchased pipes, valves and other materials that will be used to provide a second source of water to the city from the jet tube outlet works. Access to connect the two outlets would not be underwater but rather in a valve pit located just outside of the downstream face of the dam.

According to Levy, there is also a chance to provide water from two of the penstocks. Work on the modifications is expected to start in about a month. 

One audience member at the lecture told the speakers that back in 2004, the City of Page was contacted by the Bureau of Reclamation and was told that the bureau was no longer interested in being involved in the municipal water supply business and that Page would have to install a “second straw” somewhere else. The city has been working on the project since 2007.

Levy responded by saying that he hadn’t heard of that and that he knows of no plans to insist that Page come up with its own water supply from the lake.  

Another member of the audience asked about the condition of the pipe bringing water from the lake to the city. The pipe is around 65 years old, and some are concerned about failure of that pipeline. 

Levy said that pipes fail regularly and it’s not difficult to replace them.

According to Brian Carey, a member of Page’s city council, the current water demand for the City of Page is 2,358 acre-feet. (An acre-foot of water defined as 43,560 cubic feet, or 1 acre of land covered with 1 foot of water). Another way of visualizing an acre-foot of water is just less than the playing field in football (minus the end zones) with 1 foot of water on it.

For now, there is no funding to repair the existing water intake pipe or build a second straw. However, the City of Page has been working with federal officials in an effort to procure funding for the project from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed last year as well as from the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

Asked about what would happen to the Colorado River if Lake Powell dropped to dead pool, Levy and Bryant said the river wouldn’t run dry and there would still be water flowing down the Grand Canyon, though it would not likely be the 7,000 to 8,000 cubic feet per second of the past.  

According to Levy and Bryant, a portion of the water is exported out of the river basin to metro areas such as Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Fe, Albuquerque and Salt Lake City. The rest of the water – around 70% of the total – is used for agriculture.  

A Sept. 16 article on knau.org reported that U.S. Representative Tom O’Halleran was concerned about alfalfa and other water-intensive crops being grown in Arizona using groundwater with no limits on its use.

“It is unfathomable to me that, during a 1,200-year drought, the Arizona State Land Department is allowing a Saudi Arabian company to grow one of the most water intensive crops year-round on state land, straining aquifers and using the state’s limited groundwater,” O’Halleran said in a press release.   

An Arizona Daily Sun article from April 2022 reported that Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey had proposed a “historic, billion dollar investment into the creation of a new state agency – the Arizona Water Authority – that would pursue a wide array of water security projects to obtain new sources of water for the state, including the construction of a multi-billion dollar desalination plant in Mexico.” However, the proposal did not address rural water conservation and the unlimited withdrawal of groundwater from Arizona in unregulated areas. 

In early 2023, the Bureau of Reclamation will develop a formal process to develop the “post-2026 plan.” According to the bureau, the goal is and approach involving “robust public involvement.”  Information about the plan can be found at www.usbr.gov/ColoradoRiverBasin/Post2026Ops.html. 

As the lecture concluded, Levy reminded the audience that “there’s a good team doing good work” at the bureau, which “wants to be a good partner and do everything we can” for the City of Page.