The bathtub rings around Lake Powell at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area are getting wider and wider, and that's a problem for boaters. NRA officials on Thursday shut down the west half of the Antelope Point launch ramp due to low water levels.
Barricades and cones were placed on the ramp indicating the closed area, the NRA announced. Boaters can continue to launch vessels on the east side of the ramp, but they should still be aware that while the east side of the ramp is open, launching at these water levels is not safe for all sizes of boats.
"Launching is at your own risk," said Cynthia Sequannam, the NRA's information officer. "Should the lake level drop five more feet to an approximate lake elevation of 3,588 feet above sea level, Antelope Point Launch Ramp will close to all launching with boat trailers."
According to the Glen Canyon Institute, as of Wednesday both Lake Powell and Lake Mead down river at Lake Mead National Recreation Area were under half-full, at 46 percent and 42 percent of capacity, respectively. Upper Colorado Basin snow pack, meanwhile, was at 79 percent of the February 18 average.
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Meanwhile, land developers and some Utah legislators are pushing hard for funding from the horrible, awful Federal government to help build a multi-billion pipeline to pump water from Lake Powell to feed the insatiable appetite for growth in Utah's Dixie around St. George.
But they are resisting a bill in Utah's legislature that would accept money from the horrible, awful Federal government to fund healthcare for poor people in the state.
The Federal government has no business doing either.
Lee, interesting post, water for new growth and development a tough issue, as the population continues to increase, solutions will have to be found, we are facing several contentious lawsuits here in California on the issue. As health care is not a topic of the list serve, I am reluctant to comment, but on the second issue, I am dumbfounded that we citizens are still supporting efforts to keep us from a single payer health care system.
Ah Socialism raises its ugly head again.
The water level at Lake Powell should be lowered as much as possible. As it is, millions of gallons of water evaporate off of that lake; water that is much more needed in Lake Mead.
Lee cautions about plans for a major project to move 86,000+ acre-feet of water of additional water annually to SW Utah for municipal and industrial use via a pipeline 139 miles long. That's despite steady downward trends in lake levels.
Back in 2013, a local water district manager said, “That water supply will support another nearly 100,000 homes in the two counties....” It will support 100,000 new jobs.” He claimed "a project like the pipeline would end up paying for itself with the growth that comes along with it." The pipeline has an estimated $1 billion price tag, "but exact numbers won’t be known until developers are through the design process."
Some groups, however, claim better water conservation would negate the need for such pipelines.
The maps at this link are interesting; they show current and proposed water pipeline and aqueduct projects in the West. That article also described plans for the West to solve its water problem by simply moving water from place to place as "pipe dreams."
In the current "water year" at Lake Powell, "water storage has fallen by 1,242,726 AF and total outflows have exceeded total inflows by 1,215,666 AF."
Sooner or later, this water bubble is gonna pop.
That water bubble already popped. It popped well over a decade ago. NASA has many satellite timelapses of the rise and fall of Lake Powell, and Lake Mead that they have acculated from over the last few decades. There's just many in denial, and with their heads in the sand.
No, Gary, I'm afraid their heads are not in the sand. Their eyes, filled with greed, are looking only at their bank accounts and they are drooling with shortsighted avarice.
Thank you, Jim, for posting that information.
And, Rudy, you are exactly correct. But both Lake Powell and Lake Mead evaporate up to six inches of water per day off their entire huge surfaces. A number of years ago, we were told that evaporation from Powell alone was enough water to supply the city of Los Angeles for a day. That evaporation also increases natural salinity of the water to the point where it can be harmful for agriculture farther south around Yuma.