Lake Powell officials face an impossible choice in the West's megadrought: Water or electricityLake Powell, the country's second-largest reservo...
Lake Powell officials face an impossible choice in the West's megadrought: Water or electricityLake Powell, the country's second-largest reservoir, is drying up.
The situation is critical: if water levels at the lake were to drop another 32 feet, all hydroelectricity production would be halted at the reservoir's Glen Canyon Dam.
The West's climate change-induced water crisis is now triggering a potential energy crisis for millions of people in the Southwest who rely on the dam as a power source. Over the past several years, the Glen Canyon Dam has lost about 16 percent of its capacity to generate power. The water levels at Lake Powell have dropped around 100 feet in the last three years.