Climate change is threatening a reservoir considered a tourist destination in Utah and Arizona. Lake Powell is known for its boating and fishing and is the source of drinking water for 30 million people. The lake is also a major provider of hydropower for millions in the west. As a 22-year drought continues to diminish Lake Powell’s water levels, the region is grappling with what to do with a reservoir that has now proven unreliable. A recent pipeline project that would funnel water to the growing St. George metro and that threatens the Indigenous Ute community has been put on hold—a welcomed development when considering environmental justice as well as conservation of the Colorado River. As the nonprofit Save the Colorado notes, this may serve as an opportunity.
“The reality of climate change and drought will speed the demise of Lake Powell and the abandonment of Glen Canyon Dam,” Former Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner and Save the Colorado Board Treasurer Daniel Beard said in a press release. “State and federal officials should join Save The Colorado in finding acceptable approaches to make the Colorado River through Glen Canyon wild again.” Officials still believe that melting snow could keep the lake on life support, but solving the hydropower problem as well as ensuring all communities have water remains a concern, to say nothing of the economic impact of losing a major recreation area. Lake Powell isn’t an anomaly: This situation is playing out in nearby Lake Mead, where the Hoover Dam is generating hydropower at a declining rate and many boat launches have closed permanently.
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This is the future that could play out for not just the American West but across the world as climate change continues to wreak havoc on the planet. Scientists are discouraged about the minimal amount of snowmelt flowing into Lake Powell, as with Lake Mead, which gets a substantial amount of water from snowmelt. Glacier lakes in Bhutan are feeling the effects of climate change and dwindling, and the ice coverage on Lake Michigan is projected to be below average this year. The world’s disappearing lakes are such a now-ubiquitous problem that there are even listicles about them. So, what can be done?
For Lake Powell, Save the Colorado Director Gary Wockner encourages a “just collapse” of both the lake and the Glen Canyon Dam. “All stakeholders should be brought together to create a plan to decommission the dam, rewild the Colorado River, and minimize the pain while maximizing the benefit,” Wockner said in a statement. Environmental justice must be at the forefront of responding to our changing planet, lest the worst effects of climate change worsen inequality.
Wockner envisions a future in which equity and justice must be considered as Lake Powell drains and the Glen Canyon Dam no longer serves its original purpose. “Consideration should be given to how [this transition] impacts electric users and how that can be mitigated, how it impacts boaters and how that can be mitigated, [and] how the facility (Glen Canyon Dam and the Lake) could be re-configured into a tourist-economy engine,” Wockner told Daily Kos. “It would be the biggest dam decommissioning in the history of the planet with significant opportunities to draw visitors.”