Colorado gets most of its water from melting snow and ice, and the situation has worsened over the past two years as the land has become so arid that most of the runoff has been absorbed before it reaches rivers. This year, watershed runoff in the upper Colorado basin, reaching Lake Powell, is forecast to be only about two-thirds of the average.
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Lake Powell is currently at 3,523 feet, 177 feet lower. The intakes allow water to pass through the dam to generate hydroelectricity at 3,490 feet.
In a letter to state water officials in April, in which she suggested keeping water in Lake Powell, Trujillo wrote that if the lake were to rise to 3,490 feet, “the western grid would be at risk and any disruptions would occur. stable.”
Hydroelectricity is useful in maintaining grid stability in part because the amount of electricity generated can be quickly changed to help the grid match demand.
Additionally, Trujillo wrote, water supplies to the western and southwestern states “will likely increase operational uncertainty.” Water supplies to Page, Ariz., near the dam and a nearby indigenous tribe, would be especially at risk, she wrote, because their water intake was at the same elevation as the hydroelectric inlets.
Trujillo wrote that the dam itself would face “unprecedented reliability challenges,” because with above-water hydroelectric inlets, lake water would have to be routed across the dam by tunnels. lower is not designed for continuous use. “We are approaching operating conditions in which we have very little actual operating experience – and this happened almost 60 years ago,” she wrote.
Brad Udall, a senior climate scientist at Colorado State University, said concerns about the reliability of the power grid and of the dam have not really been raised in all drought contingency plans. in the past few decades.
