Officials of the Colorado River Authority of Utah have joined with peers from Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico in agreeing to shut off water releases from Flaming Gorge to Lake Powell, possibly limiting water availability to Arizona, Nevada and California (Image courtesy of the Colorado River Authority of Utah).
SALT LAKE CITY – With a near-record snowfall in the mountains and forecasts for more on the way, Utah’s water managers are already adjusting their plans for coping with the continuing drought.
Utah and three sister states occupying the upper basin of the Colorado River voted on Feb. 27 to suspend water releases from Flaming Gorge, according to Gene Shawcroft, the chair of the Colorado River Authority of Utah.
“The (water) releases from Flaming Gorge succeeded in protecting critical elevations at Lake Powell,” Shawcross explained.
“Given that operation’s success and improving hydrology, it’s time to stop sending water downstream and start focusing on restoring Flaming Gorge.”
Flaming Gorge is a huge reservoir in the northeast corner of Utah and the southwest corner of Wyoming on the Green River. It stores more than 3.7 million acre-feet of water.
Lake Powell is a man-made reservoir on the Colorado River shared by Utah and Arizona. It acts as a storage tank for outflow of water from the four states of the upper basin of the Colorado River (Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming and Utah).
The water stored in Lake Powell is used for recreation, power generation and delivering water to the lower Colorado basin states of California, Arizona and Nevada.
In March of 2022, the level of Lake Powell dropped below 3,525 feet of elevation. Western state officials were concerned that level would continue to drop below 3,490 feet of elevation, limiting the release of water to lower basin states and jeopardizing the ability of the Glen Canyon Dam to generate hydroelectric power.
Water managers from Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico met with experts from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and agreed to release 500,000 acre-feet of water from Flaming Gorge to Lake Powell over a 12-month period.
That plan was authorized under the Drought Contingency Plan passed by Congress in 2019 and signed into law by President Donald Trump.
But now experts agree that there is little chance that the elevation of Lake Powell will fall below 3,490 feet in the near term.
“Given wetter-then-average conditions in the Colorado River Basin and the resulting increases in levels at Lake Powell,” Shawcroft said, “our water managers now say the water releases achieved their intended purpose.
“It is now time to stop additional releases and begin putting water back into Flaming Gorge reservoir.”
That shut-off took effect on Mar. 1. The Bureau of Reclamation has yet to approve that action, nor have water managers from California, Arizona and Nevada.
Established in 2021, the Colorado River Authority of Utah is a state agency tasked with protecting, using, conserving and developing the state’s interests in the Colorado River system.
Utah officials and water managers coordinate with peer agencies in the aforementioned six other states in the upper and lower basins of the Colorado River.