According to the Salt Lake Tribune, Lake Powell may never reach high pool again. Coyote Gulch remembers having to use the high trail around the confluence of Coyote Gulch and the Escalante River due to the level of Lake Powell. That was around the time they nearly lost Glen Canyon Dam due to erosion in the spillways.
From the article, "But for those who long for the day when Lake Powell will be replenished to the brim - about 3,700 feet - the wait could be a long one. A nearly finalized agreement between the seven Colorado River Basin states regarding future management of the river calls for the joint, coordinated operation of Lake Powell in the upper basin and its sister reservoir, Lake Mead, downstream in the lower basin. The thrust of the idea is to ensure, as much as possible, that neither reservoir suffers at the expense of the other during future dry periods. The upside: Federal and state water officials believe that, barring a hydrological catastrophe, such a coordinated approach will prevent Powell from draining to the depths it reached during the drought. On the other hand, the deal - which probably will be incorporated into an ongoing federal environmental study of drought conditions on the Colorado River - will in most years prevent Powell from refilling to its historical high-water mark...
"Under the new management criteria, Bureau of Reclamation officials expect that Powell's median elevation will hover between 3,630 and 3,640 feet over the next decade. That's still 60 to 70 feet below the reservoir's full line, but still plenty of water for boaters to launch their craft and for marinas to operate...
"Not everybody agrees with such optimistic assessments. Environmental groups clamoring for the decommissioning of Glen Canyon Dam and draining of Lake Powell say federal and state officials are ignoring long-term historical trends - at their peril. 'They're concentrating on a historic record based upon the 20th century. But those who study tree rings call it the wettest century in 1,200 years,' says Jon Weisheit, conservation director of the Moab-based Living Rivers organization. 'What we've lived through has been an anomaly. The whole thing is based on bad science, and this new agreement just basically maintains the status quo. They're ignoring the good work that's being done by climatologists, something they could use and benefit from.' Richard Ingebretsen, founder of the Glen Canyon Institute, a group that advocates draining Lake Powell to uncover the lost Glen Canyon, said that at the Bureau of Reclamation's projected median elevations, many of the side canyons, including much of the Escalante River, will be above water."
Category: Colorado Water
8:27:24 AM 
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