PAGE, Ariz. — Matt Barrett has seen Lake Powell drop nearly every year since 2013 or so, when he started making annual treks to the reservoir on the Utah-Arizona border. Some very snowy winters helped it rebound quickly, but this year was far from that.
“We need another one of those fast,” he said recently. “A few of those fast.”
The severely depleted lake has made it harder for people like him to access the water because “all the other boat ramps are dried up,” said Barrett, who planned to spend some days with his wife boating and camping around the lake. “So it's kind of a big deal when the water is low, especially for loading and unloading.”
The Colorado River's Lake Powell, the second largest reservoir in the U.S., is shrinking. A record-dry winter and extreme heat — as well as decades of overuse, chronic drought and climate change — are threatening to pummel the lake to near historic lows. Low water levels have forced marinas in this important tourist destination to adapt. Boat ramps have closed or moved, new ones are being added and marinas have been temporarily relocated to deeper waters.
“The Colorado River is in full-blown crisis mode,” said John Berggren, regional policy manager with Western Resource Advocates, an environmental nonprofit.
But there's still enough water on Lake Powell for recreation, marina managers say.
Lake Powell levels approaching historic lows
Lake Powell is currently about 23% full and is about 33 feet (10 meters) from reaching water levels so low that hydropower can't be produced. The reservoir could break its all-time record low in early September.
Together with U.S.'s largest reservoir Lake Mead downstream, the two bodies of water are the lowest they've been in nearly 70 years. The last time their combined storage was this small was in May 1957 when Glen Canyon Dam that holds back Powell was being built, according to a recent paper published by a group of academics and retired water officials. Powell began to fill in 1963.
“There’s less water in the two reservoirs than there has ever been at any time in the history of Lake Powell even existing,” said Jack Schmidt, the paper’s lead author and director for the Center for Colorado River Studies at Utah State University. Combined, Mead and Powell hold slightly less than 60% of all water stashed in the basin. “It is a reminder that we are significantly failing in our ability to control and reduce our basin-wide consumptive use.”
The authors warn the reservoirs will continue to deplete until this winter's snowpack begins melting in the spring. “Every day going forward ... a record low will likely be set,” they wrote. “This is a significant moment in the evolving Colorado River water supply crisis.”
The Colorado River feeding these reservoirs is relied upon by farmers, industries, wildlife, hydropower and more than 40 million people in seven U.S. states, tribal nations and Mexico. Up to 1 million acre-feet (1.23 billion cubic meters) of water is being delivered from Flaming Gorge Reservoir upstream through next April to keep Powell above critical elevations, and the federal government is expected to soon announce its preferred short-term plan for how the states — California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming and Utah — should share the river's dwindling resources. Current guidelines expire this year, and states haven't reached a long-term agreement.
At Lake Powell near Page, Arizona, a bathtub ring of light minerals on the canyon wall shows the reservoir's high water mark. People ride a golf cart some 20 feet (about 6 meters) below a dock used during higher water levels.
Other Western reservoirs are also struggling
Lake Powell is among eight western reservoirs the Bureau of Reclamation has flagged for being at or near-record lows.
Elephant Butte State Park in New Mexico — the largest reservoir along the Rio Grande, which is not connected to the Colorado River — is at about 2% capacity. Critically low water levels forced two boat ramps to close in June, and heavy equipment is now needed daily to clear sediment at the main ramp so boats can launch.
Richard Holcomb, mayor of Elephant Butte, said the county is seeing fewer tourists and regular visitors.
“Many of our weekend homeowners have decided to look elsewhere for water opportunities,” he said. “This hits our gross receipts tax, which is a major source of our revenue” that helps pay for infrastructure improvements.
New Mexico water managers will be under pressure for meeting delivery obligations to Texas under a settlement recently approved by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Researchers have warned unsustainable use of the Rio Grande — which originates in Colorado and extends into Mexico — threatens water security for millions of people.
As water dwindles, marinas keep adapting
The National Park Service warns visitors that low water levels have created new navigation hazards, from newly exposed shorelines to submerged obstacles to narrower or shifting channels. Its current elevation is so low that it's not safe for houseboats and small motorized vehicles to launch from most ramps, some of which have had to close. And fewer ramps generally mean longer lines and more congestion.
Various projects are being developed or are underway to enable water access as levels dwindle.
At the Antelope Point Marina, there are plans to spend about $81 million to extend a ramp to allow lake access when water levels are as low as 3,520 feet (1,073 meters). Kenneth Runnels, chief administrator with Antelope Point Holdings, said it'll be built and ready for use next year. “We'll be able to launch no matter what.”
Elsewhere, a marina on the lake at Bullfrog Bay is being moved to deeper waters and a new boat ramp and marina access will be built at an estimated $73.4 million price tag. And the Wahweap Stateline ramp is being continually extended. “As the water goes down, they continue to pour concrete to make it go deeper and deeper,” said Runnels.
The low waters at Lake Powell are having an impact on business, Runnels said. Boat owners and families that visit the reservoir annually are still coming, but new tourists aren't, which “doesn't just affect us. That affects the whole town of Page.”
Water levels are an issue, he admits, but the Antelope Point Marina currently sits at 338 feet (103 meters) of water.
“There’s plenty of water to recreate. The problem isn’t the recreation. The problem is the access, which is going to get fixed by the improvements in the ramp.”
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Pineda reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press reporter Susan Montoya Bryan contributed from Albuquerque, New Mexico.
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