LAKE POWELL, Utah — Ken Runnels has a lot of love, and a lot of hope, for Lake Powell.
“While we're at historic lows, there's still a lot of water in Lake Powell," he said.
Antelope Point Marina is anticipating lake levels will rise 50 feet by the summer according to Runnels.
"Last year, we had to come in and we had to drop those anchors in the walls, and we had to put in new anchors and continue to lower the marina and lower the cables," he said. "This year, we're going to do the complete opposite.”
While boaters are optimistic about water levels, environmentalists like the director of Save The Colorado Gary Wockner don’t know if this past wet winter will be enough to save Lake Powell.
"They should much more strongly consider decommissioning Glen Canyon Dam and draining all the water in Lake Powell down into Lake Mead, and focus on saving Lake Mead and Hoover Dam, rather than trying to say both of the big lakes and both the dams," said Wockner. “The lake is draining itself because of climate change, drought and overuse from people.”
Lake Powell is currently almost 200 feet below capacity close to the ‘Minimum power pool,' the point where the lake can no longer produce hydropower. The Bureau of Reclamation recently put out a study, acknowledging the drought is causing lake levels to drop, and proposing alternatives, like bypassing the power plant and investing in wind or solar power.
“I guess they're going to do what they're going to do," said Runnels. "My personal opinion is this lake will always be here, that to tear the dam out would be crazy. You would lose a lot of electric power. You'd lose the ability to retain the water. It would all just run off.”
Runnels can’t imagine a world without Lake Powell, saying it would be a shame to drain the source of many Utahns’ most precious memories.
“I anticipate this lake and this marina being here forever," he said.
