LAKE POWELL, Utah — A banner year for moisture has helped raise the levels at Lake Powell.
"We came up 64 feet this year, the water, the lake level is beautiful," said Judy Franz, Executive Director of the Page-Lake Powell Hub.
Franz, who also serves as the Executive Director for the Page Chamber of Commerce says the man-made lake has brought people from near and far to Page, Arizona over the years to enjoy what it has to offer.
"I will say that pre-pandemic we had about over, we were close to about 4 million people coming here and that was because we had the internationals, of course, now they are coming back," said Franz.
Franz says the area is built on tourism, where people come to enjoy fishing, paddleboarding, as well as boat tours on Lake Powell.
She says the idea that Lake Powell could no longer exist in it's current form would have a major impact on the town of Page, just south of the Utah-Arizona state line.
"I just do not think that they really think and know what this impact would be because 75% of our population up here in the business industry is tourism," said Franz. "We've already had our Navajo generating station taken down because somebody didn't want it there, we almost 5,000 jobs because of that."
The Glen Canyon Institute, a Salt Lake City-based non-profit is looking to restore a free-flowing Colorado River through the Glen and Grand Canyons.
"When Glen Canyon Dam was built in 1963, it inundated one of the most incredible canyons in the United States, if not the world," said Eric Balken, Glen Canyon Institute Executive Director.
Gary Wockner is the Director of Save The Colorado. He says the water level in the Colorado River has dropped significantly in the last 20 years.
"It's down about 10, a little over 10% of what it's what it used to be, and the climate scientists predict it's going to drop another 10% or even more before the year 2040 or 2050," said Wockner.
He says at the current rate of the water being used that both of the big reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, can no longer function.
"Put all the water in Lake Mead and it makes a lot of sense because Lake Mead actually serves water to people in Southern California and Arizona and Nevada," said Wockner. "We want Lake Powell to be drained and Glen Canyon Dam to be decommissioned."
Wockner says it would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to change the management of the Colorado River.
"This is one of the biggest opportunities on the planet to restore Glen Canyon and the Grand Canyon," said Wockner.
However, those like Franz, worry about what will ultimately happen to an area that depends heavily on Lake Powell.
"We will reach out to anybody that we have to, to try to make sure that they hear us because this is our livelihood, said Franz.
Wockner told FOX 13 News on Thursday that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has started a scoping process on how to manage the Colorado River and especially Lake Mead and Lake Powell.
Just last month, the bureau held three virtual public meetings where people could make public comments in regard to this issue. They wrapped up their scoping process two weeks ago and will now move into drafting an environmental impact statement.
