Drought Boosts Campaign to Drain One of the West's Biggest Reservoirs

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Page 2 of 6 drain forever the symbolically potent and paradoxically beautiful lake it created. "The drought is showing us why we don't need Glen Canyon Dam," said Chris Peterson, executive director of the Glen Canyon Institute. "It's showing us what was lost when Glen Canyon Dam was built." How Dry Is It? According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the period since 1999 has been the driest in the Colorado River watershed since the agency began keeping track of such things 98 years ago. That means the interior West is drier now than it was during the catastrophic Dust Bowl drought of the 1930s, the worst of the 20th century, when crops failed across the Great Plains and farm families fled by the thousands. "This is the worst drought in the history of the river," said Barry Wirth, regional public affairs officer for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. California's winter precipitation and reservoir storage were about 90 percent of average, but the peculiarly warm and dry spring caused the Sierra Nevada snowpack to melt twice as fast as usual. Water managers for the state said then the summer stream flow — critical for refilling reservoirs during irrigation season — would be only 65 percent of average this year. Nearly everywhere else in the West, the situation is much worse. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, a report on nationwide conditions produced by a consortium of government agencies and academic institutions, virtually the entire West is gripped by conditions that range from "abnormally dry" to "exceptional drought," the most severe category on its scale. The Drought Monitor posts a map on its Web site using colors from yellow to dark red to indicate increasing levels of severity; the map presents a West with a giant vermillion bulls -eye centered about where Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming meet, with colorful ripples of bad news propagating across adjoining states. The Natural Resources Conservation Service, a federal agency that monitors water conditions across the nation, reported May 27 that despite flurries of rain and late snowfall this spring in several western states, the Rocky Mountain snowpack melted much earlier than usual this year. The agency predicted that stream flows this summer would be near historic low levels in much of the West. And California has little reason to be smug, despite its only slightly sub -par winter precipitation. The state relies heavily on imports from the drought- shriveled Colorado River, source of more than half the water consumed in Southern California. Although the drought has not yet interfered with Southern California water imports, Interior Secretary Gale Norton warned earlier this year of potential reductions in deliveries if the drought continues. California also relies on hydropower generated by the Colorado and in the Columbia River basin of the Pacific Northwest. The Bonneville Power Administration, which markets the electricity produced at 31 federally owned dams in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana, recently notified California energy managers that because of low river flows — the volume in some waterways is only 40 percent of average — they should not count on being able to purchase surplus electricity from the Pacific Northwest to meet daily power needs this summer. California utilities traditionally have employed that strategy to get over the hump when energy use peaks because of air conditioner use. Losing access to surplus power from the Pacific Northwest could mean higher electricity prices in California, as utilities turn to expensive purchases on the spot market to offset potential shortages. It may also result in increased air pollution, as generating plants that burn natural gas and coal ramp up operations to offset reductions in relatively clean hydroelectric power. Get Used to It There's no reason to expect things to improve in the short term, climate experts warn. In fact, there's a chance they'll get worse — a lot worse. "The drought in the interior West will persist through summer, as the water supply situation stays the same or worsens in coming months due to below - normal snow accumulation during the winter season," the National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center concluded in its drought forecast issued May 20. "The summer thunderstorm season during July and August will likely bring no more than short-term relief from dryness, and the long -term hydrological drought should persist at least until next winter's snow season." 8/27/2004