What’s it like on lake powell lately?

[Foggy]

Great minds and some with ultra fat wallets have long known there always are
advantages when others see only calamity.

Falling water levels and melting ice both expose millions of people to jeopardy
as well as expose new earth bed for old time prospecting.

The big boys are at the latter already:

https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/08/world/greenland-melting-mineral-mining-climate/index.html

Think of that...

Aye.

[ssobol]

[Wood Zeppelin]

Hi Thataway,

I highly recommend checking out "Cadillac Desert", either in book form or the video documentary. Fascinating stuff that's right under our noses that most people don't know about. It's a four hour documentary, I watched it in three sittings... they talk about the era of dam building frenzy, etc, etc.

Cadillac Desert (YouTube)

Then there are chapters in the amazing book called "Emerald Mile" that talk more about Glen Canyon dam.

Here is an article about the fuzziness and inaccuracies of how they look at rainfall data:

https://coloradosun.com/2022/02/24/water-projections-too-rosy-lake-powell/

The information about the original analysis having errors was told to me by my friend who lives near Lake Powell and works for a land use advocacy non-profit in the area. I haven't checked the source on that, but it's a friend I know is deeply involved in the region as her career. Similar to the article above, "going under the hood" has found significant inaccuracies.[/url]

[oldguy83]

It's worked for eighty plus years.

[thataway]

Wood Zeppelin,

[Wood Zeppelin]

Sorry- by "rainfall" I mean annual precipitation, which includes the snow.

Thataway - the answers are within the sources I posted. The damn building frenzy is mentioned in the books. I recall hearing that a very large proportion of all US dams were built within few decades. Because I don't remember what page or chapter, there's also this:

"The US went on its own dam-building frenzy between the 1920s and 1960s — before many of the full impacts of dams were well understood. Today, there are more than 79,000 dams across the country, and some have caused major problems. So, in recent decades, the US has removed about 1,000 of them, often at great expense.

The reasons varied. Some dams, by turning free-flowing rivers into stagnant reservoirs and disrupting flow and sediment regimes, ended up destroying whole ecosystems. The Elwha River in the Pacific Northwest, for instance, lost 90 percent of its salmon after being dammed up. Other dams turned out to be extremely expensive to maintain over the years, and many simply weren't worth the cost."

https://www.vox.com/2014/10/28/7083487/the-world-is-building-thousands-of-new-dams-is-that-really-a-good-idea

[thataway]

Not only does one get into the issues of an area should be settled, where people are going to live, but how to generate power for what are now "necessities"(??) like air conditioning in S. Calif. Even today many dams are built to generate "clean energy"--which seems to be the goal of many environmentalists. You have the paradox of damming rivers vs the demand for flood control, water and power.

The massive dam building goes on all over the world currently. There are over 90,000 dams currently in the USA. Only a small number generate hydro power. (101 gigawatts; by retrofitting some current dams to produce hydropower, that could increase by 50 gigawatts.)

There are arguments of both sides of the issue. It is not at all black and white; or canyon vs lake. My preference is to have the canyon. But then I live in an area with a surplus of water, where all I need to do is drill a well about 240 feet deep and I am into a main aquifer under low pressure.

The coastal areas are trying to utilize desalinization plants--are they wise? How about a nuclear power generation using the waste heat to convert salt to fresh water?

It is just not a simple problem--and far from a craze.

Each visit to Lake Powell (11) we would read at least one book on the canyon and its history, impact etc before Glen Canyon Dam. See how the indigenous people utilize the water in the desert even today. Many communities do not have "running water". Go up San Juan Arm and talk to one of the Navajo who live in the area. Get their opinion.

Now today we are selling both our precious land but also water rights to foreign powers. Is this wise? How will history judge this? Can we really judge creation of Lake Powell today?

[ssobol]

[thataway]

[jkidd]

Bullfrog News: August 12, 2022
Dear Partners:
Future Lake Powell Ramp Operations This Season: A reminder to Lake Powell boaters - the Bullfrog North Ramp will remain operational for houseboats and larger vessels until lake levels reach 3529 ft. and operational for smaller vessels until elevation 3525 ft. Please be aware that water levels are declining. The lake level as of August 11 was 3534.32. Current Bureau of Reclamation “most probable” projections indicate the lake could reach 3529.71 in August 2022 and 3526.75 as early as September: https://www.usbr.gov/lc/region/g4000/24mo.pdf. BOR currently predicts a low of 3505.66 by March 2023. The Stateline Auxiliary Ramp near Page, Ariz. is operational for motorized vessels of all sizes and can be extended to elevation 3,490 ft., if necessary. Please stay tuned for further announcements.

[jkidd]

As of today water is just touching the bottom of the Halls boat ramp.

https://wayneswords.net/threads/its-wet-halls-ramp.8687/#post-92735

[colbysmith]

[jkidd]

[colbysmith]

Link is working again!

[jkidd]

Gregory Natural Bridge is officially under water again.