New Photographic Evidence of the Continuing Lake Powell Water Fiasco

A year ago, Judy Greenfield and I visited Warm Creek Bay, an arm of Lake Powell in Utah.  We observed the dramatic decline in the lake’s water level since the mid-1980s.  My story of the lake’s decline and photos were published in the Canyon Country Zephyr and are now posted on this blog (“A First Hand Look at Drought in the Colorado River Basin”, posted January 27, 2022).

In the past year, the lake level has declined another 40 vertical feet.  Last week, we revisited Warm Creek Bay and saw that the shoreline of Warm Creek Bay has retreated another mile.

   

Here is a southeasterly view of Warm Creek Bay on April 19, 2021.

And here is roughly the same view one year later (April 28, 2022).  All the green and brown grassy areas and beige muddy areas were covered by water last year.  Near the top right corner of the photo, you can barely see the upper end of the present bay which appears as a small light patch below a brown cliff.  

   Map shows two locations visited in April 2022:  Bullfrog and Warm Creek Bay.

On April 25, 2022 we visited the Bullfrog Marina, 40 aerial miles north of Warm Creek Bay.  This was once a busy location for launching and retrieving houseboats brought in via State Highway 276.

There are still more than a hundred houseboats tied up at the marina at docks which rise and fall with the lake water level.

Bullfrog Bay (an arm of Lake Powell) and boat ramp a few years ago.   Source:  http://www.androsmartcameras.com/utah/webcamera-Utah-738000077-Bullfrog-Launch-Ramp-Bullfrog-Utah-Other-Cams.html

Launching and retrieving boats on trailers is no longer possible at Bullfrog.  The launching ramp (top center of photo) sits high and dry above Bullfrog Bay.

The end of the Bullfrog launching ramp is indicated by the red and white barricade in the center of the photo.  It’s another 1000 feet from the end of the ramp to what is left of Bullfrog Bay.  Photo from April 25, 2022.

For many years, there was seasonal ferry service across Lake Powell from Bullfrog to Halls Crossing connecting the east and west segments of State Highway 276.  The ferry is not currently in service and may never operate again.  Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullfrog_Basin

This is the vehicle ramp for the Halls Crossing Ferry in April 2022.  The channel below the end of the ramp is totally dry.  The blue water of Lake Powell is barely visible in the distance. 

Here’s what is left of Lake Powell below Stanton Canyon, east of Bullfrog Bay.  In the 1980s, Lake Powell covered this entire area except for the mesas in the distance.   View is to the west.  

From what I’ve been reading in the press lately, government officials in the seven Colorado River Basin states, water managers with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, businesses that rely on Lake Powell for their income, and the public that uses the lake have finally woken up to the fact that they have a big problem.  Were the water level in Lake Powell to drop another 35 feet, Glen Canyon Dam, which backs up Lake Powell, would no longer be able to generate electricity for the 5 million people who rely on it.  The water supply for some 40 million people would also be threatened. 

As a result, the water managers are now scrambling.  The plan is to release more water from the Flaming Gorge Reservoir on the Utah-Wyoming state line and other upstream reservoirs in an attempt to stabilize the water level at Lake Powell.  Furthermore, they will cut back on releases from Lake Powell destined for Lake Mead which lies a couple hundred miles downriver from Powell.  The water level in Lake Mead (impounded by the Hoover Dam near Las Vegas) is also way down but can drop another 150 feet before the generators at the Hoover Dam fall silent. 

With most of the existing boat ramps at Lake Powell no longer usable, the National Park Service which runs the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area is working with boating concessioners to extend some of the ramps – your tax dollars at work!  Las Vegas and some other cities in the region have enacted strict water conservation measures to reduce consumption.  The seven Colorado River basin states, Native American tribes, and Mexico (yes, the Colorado River flows through northern Mexico to the Sea of Cortez) are trying to mitigate the basin’s drought by renegotiating the Colorado River Compact of 1922.   

As far as I’m concerned, it’s all a giant shell game to postpone the demise of Lakes Powell and Mead and their dams.  This impeding fiasco may be postponed a few years but is inevitable unless:

- Mother Nature reverses the long-term Southwestern drought and the earth’s climate catastrophe.

- Millions of people stop moving to Phoenix, Las Vegas, Denver and all the smaller cities that rely on Colorado River water.

- Colorado River water diverted to the Los Angeles area is cut off and replaced by desalination of Pacific Ocean water (very expensive and energy intensive)

- There are dramatic reductions in water use for agriculture within the basin – especially for livestock and their feed crops. 

-  Humans in the Southwest make a rapid transition to sustainable living.

I doubt any of this is going to happen because we humans are greedy, short-sighted, selfish, stubborn, ignorant of scientific facts, and just plain stupid!  May our lights go out and may we all die of thirst!  Yeah, I’m harsh and fed up! 

© Will Mahoney 2022

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