4F: Managing Lake Powell’s water level requires constant attention

Lake Powell is a centerpiece of the Colorado River system with the capacity to store approximately 24 million acre-feet of water and make releases for municipal use, agriculture and power generation, while supporting native species recovery efforts and recreational interests. However, the reservoir has been declining since 2000, approaching critically low elevations in recent years and threatening safe operations of Glen Canyon Dam. To protect critical elevations at Lake Powell, the Bureau of Reclamation released approximately 588,000 acre-feet of water from Flaming Gorge Reservoir to Lake Powell in 2021 and 2022 under the Drought Response Operations Agreement (DROA).

The combination of wet hydrology in 2023 and DROA releases succeeded in stabilizing Lake Powell elevations. Accordingly, additional releases from Flaming Gorge were suspended in March 2023 giving way to efforts to recover the previously released water. Full recovery at Flaming Gorge is anticipated in February 2024.

While DROA has proven to be both an effective and flexible tool, proper accounting is essential to ensuring DROA fulfills its objective. If not accounted for separately, the presence of DROA water at Lake Powell may lead to greater releases from Glen Canyon Dam for the benefit of the Lower Basin. This type of “mining” of Lake Powell can only be avoided if the Bureau of Reclamation ensures that future DROA releases are retained at Lake Powell until full recovery at Flaming Gorge, or any other participating upstream reservoir, is achieved. Unfortunately, this has not occurred and releases under DROA intended to protect Lake Powell ultimately have had the opposite effect. In 2023, the reservoir will be approximately 180,000 acre-feet lower had the DROA releases not occurred.