Enlarge / Water levels at the Hoover Dam are well below capacity. (credit: Jorge Villalba)
News that Arizona’s Lake Powell is slowly but surely drying up has spread far and wide. The reservoir behind the 1,320-megawatt Glen Canyon Dam and power station, Lake Powell plays an important role in providing power for some 3 million customers in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming.
But this year, the reservoir has hit a historic low, thanks to ongoing drought conditions in the region that have been attributed, at least in part, to climate change. The dam may even stop producing power if the situation continues to worsen, and this issue is not an isolated one in the American Southwest.
The Colorado River, an important source for many dams and power plants in the region, has been wracked by drought for the past 22 years—some research even suggests that it is subject to the worst drought the area has seen in 1,200 years. Further, according to the US Drought Monitor, as of March 29, 88.75 percent of the Western US has been experiencing a moderate drought or worse. According to staff members at the United States Bureau of Reclamation (USBR), other dams in this be-droughted part of the country are seeing similar effects—though the officials also noted that each case is different.
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