LAKE POWELL, Utah — Water from Lake Powell typically flows through the Glen Canyon Dam’s hydropower turbines, eventually reaching the lower Great Basin states. In a new experiment, the Bureau of Reclamation tested a lower set of water tubes to see if water can still be delivered to the communities that need it as water levels shrink.
“The results of the Bureau's experiment demonstrate some very serious concerns and an emerging crisis inside Glen Canyon Dam because of Lake Powell's falling water levels,” said Zach Frankel, Executive Director of the Utah Rivers Council. “It started shaking apart and starting to get structural damage, so the results of the experiment demonstrate that these tubes cannot be used to deliver large volumes of water downstream.”
These lower tubes were designed in the 1950s for temporary use during construction.
“The plumbing design of Glen Canyon Dam is archaic,” he said. “It's just too old. It's literally antique plumbing, and it's going to have to be fixed by lowering the bypass tubes to a lower water level, presumably at riverbed level.”
It could cost hundreds of millions of dollars to replace these tubes, and if the Bureau of Reclamation doesn’t do this, Utahns will likely suffer, said Frankel.
“If we don't find a way to get enough water past Glen Canyon Dam by fixing this plumbing, then we're going to see water cuts inside Utah, and it could be coming to some of the suburbs of the Wasatch front,” he said. “Every Utahn should be paying attention to this crisis because we're going to have to take water cuts if we don't solve it.
The results were published in a memo from the Bureau of Reclamation.
During a briefing Monday, Wayne Pullan, Upper Colorado Basin Regional Director, released this statement:
“These issues are not a result of any one event. Cavitation has occurred over time. Recent operations have confirmed that cavitation is more of a concern at low reservoir elevations. The bypass tubes are operable and we are instituting this interim guidance addressing the identified concerns to ensure that they remain so—while we conduct investigations, perform maintenance and replacement activities, and develop strategies and remedial actions to address potential sole operations of the ROW for longer periods of time, should such operations be needed in the future.”
