Officials Warn Arizona Lakes Could See Water Levels Drop

Officials have indicated that Lake Powell, the nation’s second-largest reservoir by capacity, could potentially see water levels drop low enough to halt hydropower generation by December 2026. Forecasts indicated declining storage levels and projected that the reservoir, situated on the Colorado River between Utah and Arizona, would likely fall below the minimum power pool for Glen Canyon Dam turbines within 18 months.

Lake Powell is part of the foundation of the western U.S. water and energy systems, storing up to approximately 24 million acre-feet of water. The Glen Canyon Dam provides power to approximately 5 million people in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. This comes after the reservoir, as well as its downstream counterpart Lake Mead, hit historic lows in 2022.

Sarah Porter, Director at the Kyl Center for Water Policy, joined Arizona Horizon to share more about the decline of water levels.

“Things are starting to look worse and in the latest projections that the United States Bureau of Reclamations provides they show that there is a larger chance than we would like that the water levels could get so low that the Grand Canyon Dam wouldn’t produce hydropower,” Porter said.

According to Porter, the impact of the Dam going out of commission would definitely be felt, “It is a significant generator of hydroelectric power… It is power that predominantly tribes and rural communities rely on,” Porter goes on to say that this would “create hardships for those power users.”

Hydroelectric power is a clean energy source, it does not emit carbon so losing power from dams would “remove a form of non carbon producing energy from the portfolios of energy providers,” Porter said.

“If we have another not so good winter which is a reasonable thing to expect, we could be in worse shape,” Porter said.