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Miller, Steve <br />From: Loretta Lohman [lorettalohman @comcast.net] <br />Sent: Sunday, August 22, 2004 6:06 PM <br />To: Miller, Steve; John Shields; Dave Merritt; Laurie Fisher <br />Subject: Lake Powell drought <br />M) ;Watt flork Cnneo <br />August 22, 2004 <br />Page I of 2 <br />FORMATCiAMEN STATE <br />Lake - Protection Plan Keeps Western Drought in Mind <br />By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS <br />LAS VEGAS, Aug. 21 (AP) - The seven states sharing the Colorado River are considering a plan <br />to protect Lake Powell by cutting the amount of water released downstream to Lake Mead, a <br />Nevada water official said on Friday. <br />The official, Pat Mulroy, said that under the plan, which could be carried out if drought persists <br />through the winter, the amount of water released from Lake Powell, on the Utah - Arizona border, <br />would be reduced to 7.8 million acre -feet from 8.23 million acre -feet. <br />The reduction could help keep Lake Powell from shrinking further, which would jeopardize power <br />generation at Glen Canyon Dam. But it could also accelerate a drop in the water level downstream at <br />Lake Mead, the primary water supply for Las Vegas, said Ms. Mulroy, general manager of the <br />Southern Nevada Water Authority. <br />It might also prevent a "call on the river," requiring water users in the drought - stricken upper basin <br />to give up more water to meet the 8.23 million acre -foot requirement set by existing water policy. <br />Ms. Mulroy told The Las Vegas Review - Journal the plan was floated by representatives from the <br />upper Colorado River Basin states of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming. <br />"Two more years of less than 50 percent runoff and Powell's a dead pool," she said. "That's how <br />close we are." <br />Don Oster, executive director of the Upper Colorado River Commission, called reducing the flow <br />from Powell one option. Mr. Oster said the upper basin's main proposal involved reviewing the <br />operating plan for the river every six months instead of once a year during the drought. <br />"To us, the business -as -usual approach is not going to work anymore," he said. <br />After five years of below - normal snowfall along the western slope of the Rocky Mountains, Lake <br />Powell is at 40 percent of capacity and power generation at Glen Canyon Dam is down 40 percent. <br />Lake Mead is at 54 percent of capacity. <br />8/23/2004 <br />