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. I~--- . :.\ ----'----. " . THE WATER LEVEL or LAKE POWELL AND ITS ~~ANING TO THE STATE OF COLORADO by Dr. Jame~ R. Guadagno Vater Workshop - Colorado Open Space Council On May 19, 1971, the State of Colorado moved to intervene in a United States Dis- ~rict Court Case seeking to prevent the waters of Lake Powell from inundating the base of Rainbow Bridge. The suit was filed by Friends of the Earth, the Wasatch ~ountain Club, and Kenneth G. Sleight against the commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the Secretary of the Interior. Colorado's decision followed a resolution passed by the state legislature (Senate Joint Resolution ao. 18) which objected to limiting the level of the reservoir, stating that such a liDitation would: (1) Reduce the amount of water available to the state of Colorado ~om the Colorado River by over 800,000 acre-feet annually; (2) Reduce the funds which would otherwise be available to the state of Colorado under the nrovision~ of the Colorado River Storage Project Act by over $170,000,000; . (3) Drastically reduce or eliminate the water supply for many rr-ajor Colorado water resource projects already constructed or au~horized; (4) Preclude any further development to utilize the water resources of the Colorado River in Colorado; and (5) Destroy the preffiises and ffieaning of the Colorado River C~pact of 1922, the Opper Colorado P~ver Basin Compact of 19u8, the Colo~ado ?iver Sto~- age Project Ac~ of 1956, and t~e Colorado Riv~~ Ea~i~ P~~j~c~ Ac~ == 19te. Felix L. Sparks, Director of the Colorado Water Conservation Board, added that the lawsuit would also ha~e the following effects:l (6) Lake Powell would need to be drained most of the years to supply the ccm~it- ments under the ~exican Treaty and the Colorado River Corr-pact.... (7) No storage space would be available to regulate the Colcrado River Fiow.... (9) Without regulated storage in Lake Powell adequate firm ~ower could not be generated... This would cause a billion dollar investment loss to the federa1 government in addition to tremendous losse~....due to shortages of power. (9) The national power reserv~ would be reduced. (10) Reduced power generation thl'curzh reduced participation funes would destroy the future of proposed Upper Basin Projects. In addition, the Upper Colorado River Co~mission added: (11) If a f~ood of really major proportions was anti~ipated, the lake would almost have to be emotied....2 These argucents have been analyzed one by one, and the results are liste~ below: (1) Colorado will lose over 000,000 acre-feet cf ~ater annually. The a~ility 0= a r~st>::,voir (or series of reservoirs) to :'f'gulate flo.., is a complex function of tlle ca:>acity of the resei'Voir, the flow of the stre,m it controls, and the vdriability in flew or the stro...am. Accurate analysis of !'eiZula'tion caoaci'ty requires the use of Q'<.leue theory, vhich deals with the mathematics of probabilities. Walter B. Langbein has ~ade such an analysis for the Colorado River.3 - -----------.