Three years ago, Tick Segerblom received a call from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The agents wanted to talk to him. They refused to say why. “I’m thinking, ‘Oh my God — my political career, who knows what I’ve done,’” recalled Mr. Segerblom, a former Nevada state lawmaker and senator who is now a Clark County commissioner. When agents arrived at his office just north of the Vegas strip, “I’m sweating bullets,” he said. They started with a question: “You said you want to destroy Glen Canyon Dam?” The answer was yes. In fact, Mr. Segerblom had said so publicly, citing as his life’s ambition the destruction of the half-century-old dam that turned Glen Canyon into Lake Powell Reservoir. Before it flooded, the 273-kilometer-long Glen Canyon was considered one of the most beautiful places on the continent, rivaling the Grand Canyon. Its sinking is still considered by some to be one of the biggest environmental blunders in US history. “You don’t destroy a billion-year-old canyon — let alone build a city here in the desert so people can fly all over the world to come and play,” said Mr. Segerblom, who grew up rafting and water skiing on the Colorado River and spent three years as a guide before embarking on a career in law and politics. At the time of his conversation with the FBI, which did not lead to charges, the idea of sending one of the country’s most important pieces of infrastructure was not taken very seriously. Glen Canyon Dam, completed in 1966, provides water and electricity to people in Arizona. And it works alongside the Hoover Dam – both are landmark structures over 600 feet tall – to hold back the mountain meltwater that flows into the Colorado River. These waters provide year-round hydration to farmers and the approximately 42 million people living in the southwestern United States. But after 23 years of drought, the water behind the two dams has dropped to dangerously low levels. Each tank is now about a quarter of its capacity. Water managers have resorted to emergency measures to maintain hydroelectric generating capacity at Glen Canyon, holding back vast amounts of water and releasing additional amounts from upstream to keep the turbines running. Without that answer, it’s possible Glen Canyon’s electric generation would have stopped this year, said David Arend, deputy regional director at the US Bureau of Reclamation, which operates dams on the Colorado River. But these measures amount to a short-term solution, he said. The bureau’s latest 24-month forecast shows water levels will fall next summer to five and a half meters below the minimum needed to generate electricity. As the drought deepens, the Bureau of Reclamation is planning for all kinds of contingencies, including what to do if the water level drops below this minimum. The office is examining options for meeting the South West’s water needs through desalination, wastewater recycling and more efficient irrigation. The goal is “to preserve the entire system as we move forward,” Mr. Arendt said. Climate change has made it less likely that Lake Powell will return to its former levels in the future. Nathan VanderKlippe/The Globe and Mail But that system, the one that supports life in the US Southwest, now hangs in the balance like never before. Barring the sudden return of heavy winter snows – which climate change has made increasingly unlikely – water is unlikely to naturally return in large quantities to Glen Canyon’s Lake Powell. As scientists study the long-term process drying up the region, there’s never been a better time, some advocates say, to make a radical break with how water is managed. It’s time, they say, to allow water to flow freely past Glen Canyon Dam, restoring the canyon and its visual wonders to something closer to their natural state. “Our dams have failed. They don’t work,” said Richard Ingebretsen, a Utah physician and scholar who founded the Glen Canyon Institute, a group that has spent more than 25 years advocating for the restoration of the canyon. “They need to rethink the whole thing.” The idea of consigning Glen Canyon Dam to history “doesn’t seem so quixotic anymore,” Mr. Segerblom said. He and others want bypass tunnels built that would leave the dam standing but drain Lake Powell to bring a wild river back into Glen Canyon. Water flows from the dam’s bypass pipes in 2004. Jeff Topping/Getty Images The flooding of the canyon in the 1960s was controversial from the start. It was opposed by environmental groups and “river runners” – people who guided visitors through its narrow canals and developed an almost religious devotion to its grandeur. “Would you flood the Sistine Chapel? Would you flood the Mormon temple? To make money?’ asked Ken Sleight, who had traveled through Glen Canyon and the adjacent canyons hundreds of times before flooded. It became his home, he said – a place rich with archaeological evidence of more than 10,000 years of human use. Mr Sleight has not been back since 1973, when the waters rose. “There was no more Glen Canyon as I knew it,” he said. In the past two years, however, some of the places he knew began to return. Falling water levels have once again exposed the Cathedral in the Desert, a natural rock amphitheater crowned by a waterfall. The Gregory Bridge, a thick stone overpass that is among the longest natural bridges on earth, will likely come up completely by next year as reservoir levels drop. “I say glory, glory hallelujah to see that water come down,” said Mr. Sleight, a Colorado River legend who at 92 retains a vivid memory of its hidden corners and the people who once explored them. Restoring the canyon is just one of the necessary responses to the drought, he said. “I think we should just reduce the population,” he argued. “We don’t have to get rid of what we got, but you can just start saying, ‘Don’t have so many.’ “ Former river runner Ken Sleight, 92, has been opposed to the flooding of Glen Canyon for decades. Nathan VanderKlippe/The Globe and Mail It is a reflective view widespread anxiety about the extremity of the current water shortage. And it puts the stakes in stark relief for those determined to protect Western water supplies and the system built to provide them. Earlier this summer, Bureau of Recovery Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton warned, in comments to a US Senate committee, that the system has reached a tipping point. Seven states rely on the Colorado River basin and have failed to create plans for adequate cuts in water use. Ms Tutton said during a press conference earlier this week that It would take 15% to 30% reductions in usage – unprecedented cuts that may have to be imposed by the US government. “The system is reaching breaking point, and without action we cannot protect the system and the millions of Americans who rely on this critical resource,” he added. About two-thirds of Colorado’s water is used to irrigate fields that produce winter crops, meaning sharp water reductions are likely to be felt far away, including in Canada. Arizona and California alone exported nearly $900 million worth of vegetables, fruits and nuts to Canada in 2019. Such changes may not be temporary. What is happening along the Colorado River is often characterized as a drought. John Entsminger, general manager of the Las Vegas Valley Water District, argued that it’s best to think of it as desiccation — a long-term process, driven by climate change, that creates permanently drier conditions. The only solution, he said, would be a “permanent reduction in total water use by every sector in every state in the Colorado River Basin.” A century-old compact provides for the use of about 15 million acre-feet of water from the basin by the states that rely on it. “Some of the best climate scientists in the world tell us we’ll be lucky to have 11 million acre feet of water in the future,” Mr. Enzminger said. (An acre foot is 1.2 million liters.) But closing Glen Canyon Dam is not a viable solution, he said, because of its role in providing water and electricity to people in Arizona, including parts of the Navajo Nation. If no alternatives are found, he sees no other option but to keep the dam operating. Besides, said Chuck Cullom, executive director of the Upper Colorado River Commission, which oversees water allocation to states in the upper reaches of the watershed, there are ways to make better use of the remaining water supplies. “The technology to address this problem is readily available,” he said, pointing to Singapore’s success in water recycling and the vibrant agricultural sector in arid Israel. “It’s about targeted investment, transitional finance and a willingness to do things differently,” he said. So much of Colorado’s water is used to irrigate cattle pastures that some water managers joked that the problem could be solved by millions of people adopting Meatless Mondays. An employee at the Carlsbad desalination plant in California fills a cup with filtered ocean water. Gregory Bull/The Associated Press Even a blunt force approach could secure significant water supplies at a cost that the American economy could absorb. The Carlsbad desalination plant outside of San Diego cost about US$1 billion to build and produces 56,000 acre feet per year of fresh water. This suggests, in rough terms, a $35 billion price tag for two million acres worth of desalination plants – less than 5 percent of the cost of health care and climate spending…
title: “Us Drought Gives Critics Of Arizona Dam New Argument To Demolish It Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-07” author: “Edna Velasquez”
Three years ago, Tick Segerblom received a call from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The agents wanted to talk to him. They refused to say why. “I’m thinking, ‘Oh my God — my political career, who knows what I’ve done,’” recalled Mr. Segerblom, a former Nevada state lawmaker and senator who is now a Clark County commissioner. When agents arrived at his office just north of the Vegas strip, “I’m sweating bullets,” he said. They started with a question: “You said you want to destroy Glen Canyon Dam?” The answer was yes. In fact, Mr. Segerblom had said so publicly, citing as his life’s ambition the destruction of the half-century-old dam that turned Glen Canyon into Lake Powell Reservoir. Before it flooded, the 273-kilometer-long Glen Canyon was considered one of the most beautiful places on the continent, rivaling the Grand Canyon. Its sinking is still considered by some to be one of the biggest environmental blunders in US history. “You don’t destroy a billion-year-old canyon — let alone build a city here in the desert so people can fly all over the world to come and play,” said Mr. Segerblom, who grew up rafting and water skiing on the Colorado River and spent three years as a guide before embarking on a career in law and politics. At the time of his conversation with the FBI, which did not lead to charges, the idea of sending one of the country’s most important pieces of infrastructure was not taken very seriously. Glen Canyon Dam, completed in 1966, provides water and electricity to people in Arizona. And it works alongside the Hoover Dam – both are landmark structures over 600 feet tall – to hold back the mountain meltwater that flows into the Colorado River. These waters provide year-round hydration to farmers and the approximately 42 million people living in the southwestern United States. But after 23 years of drought, the water behind the two dams has dropped to dangerously low levels. Each tank is now about a quarter of its capacity. Water managers have resorted to emergency measures to maintain hydroelectric generating capacity at Glen Canyon, holding back vast amounts of water and releasing additional amounts from upstream to keep the turbines running. Without that answer, it’s possible Glen Canyon’s electric generation would have stopped this year, said David Arend, deputy regional director at the US Bureau of Reclamation, which operates dams on the Colorado River. But these measures amount to a short-term solution, he said. The bureau’s latest 24-month forecast shows water levels will fall next summer to five and a half meters below the minimum needed to generate electricity. As the drought deepens, the Bureau of Reclamation is planning for all kinds of contingencies, including what to do if the water level drops below this minimum. The office is examining options for meeting the South West’s water needs through desalination, wastewater recycling and more efficient irrigation. The goal is “to preserve the entire system as we move forward,” Mr. Arendt said. Climate change has made it less likely that Lake Powell will return to its former levels in the future. Nathan VanderKlippe/The Globe and Mail But that system, the one that supports life in the US Southwest, now hangs in the balance like never before. Barring the sudden return of heavy winter snows – which climate change has made increasingly unlikely – water is unlikely to naturally return in large quantities to Glen Canyon’s Lake Powell. As scientists study the long-term process drying up the region, there’s never been a better time, some advocates say, to make a radical break with how water is managed. It’s time, they say, to allow water to flow freely past Glen Canyon Dam, restoring the canyon and its visual wonders to something closer to their natural state. “Our dams have failed. They don’t work,” said Richard Ingebretsen, a Utah physician and scholar who founded the Glen Canyon Institute, a group that has spent more than 25 years advocating for the restoration of the canyon. “They need to rethink the whole thing.” The idea of consigning Glen Canyon Dam to history “doesn’t seem so quixotic anymore,” Mr. Segerblom said. He and others want bypass tunnels built that would leave the dam standing but drain Lake Powell to bring a wild river back into Glen Canyon. Water flows from the dam’s bypass pipes in 2004. Jeff Topping/Getty Images The flooding of the canyon in the 1960s was controversial from the start. It was opposed by environmental groups and “river runners” – people who guided visitors through its narrow canals and developed an almost religious devotion to its grandeur. “Would you flood the Sistine Chapel? Would you flood the Mormon temple? To make money?’ asked Ken Sleight, who had traveled through Glen Canyon and the adjacent canyons hundreds of times before flooded. It became his home, he said – a place rich with archaeological evidence of more than 10,000 years of human use. Mr Sleight has not been back since 1973, when the waters rose. “There was no more Glen Canyon as I knew it,” he said. In the past two years, however, some of the places he knew began to return. Falling water levels have once again exposed the Cathedral in the Desert, a natural rock amphitheater crowned by a waterfall. The Gregory Bridge, a thick stone overpass that is among the longest natural bridges on earth, will likely come up completely by next year as reservoir levels drop. “I say glory, glory hallelujah to see that water come down,” said Mr. Sleight, a Colorado River legend who at 92 retains a vivid memory of its hidden corners and the people who once explored them. Restoring the canyon is just one of the necessary responses to the drought, he said. “I think we should just reduce the population,” he argued. “We don’t have to get rid of what we got, but you can just start saying, ‘Don’t have so many.’ “ Former river runner Ken Sleight, 92, has been opposed to the flooding of Glen Canyon for decades. Nathan VanderKlippe/The Globe and Mail It is a reflective view widespread anxiety about the extremity of the current water shortage. And it puts the stakes in stark relief for those determined to protect Western water supplies and the system built to provide them. Earlier this summer, Bureau of Recovery Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton warned, in comments to a US Senate committee, that the system has reached a tipping point. Seven states rely on the Colorado River basin and have failed to create plans for adequate cuts in water use. Ms Tutton said during a press conference earlier this week that It would take 15% to 30% reductions in usage – unprecedented cuts that may have to be imposed by the US government. “The system is reaching breaking point, and without action we cannot protect the system and the millions of Americans who rely on this critical resource,” he added. About two-thirds of Colorado’s water is used to irrigate fields that produce winter crops, meaning sharp water reductions are likely to be felt far away, including in Canada. Arizona and California alone exported nearly $900 million worth of vegetables, fruits and nuts to Canada in 2019. Such changes may not be temporary. What is happening along the Colorado River is often characterized as a drought. John Entsminger, general manager of the Las Vegas Valley Water District, argued that it’s best to think of it as desiccation — a long-term process, driven by climate change, that creates permanently drier conditions. The only solution, he said, would be a “permanent reduction in total water use by every sector in every state in the Colorado River Basin.” A century-old compact provides for the use of about 15 million acre-feet of water from the basin by the states that rely on it. “Some of the best climate scientists in the world tell us we’ll be lucky to have 11 million acre feet of water in the future,” Mr. Enzminger said. (An acre foot is 1.2 million liters.) But closing Glen Canyon Dam is not a viable solution, he said, because of its role in providing water and electricity to people in Arizona, including parts of the Navajo Nation. If no alternatives are found, he sees no other option but to keep the dam operating. Besides, said Chuck Cullom, executive director of the Upper Colorado River Commission, which oversees water allocation to states in the upper reaches of the watershed, there are ways to make better use of the remaining water supplies. “The technology to address this problem is readily available,” he said, pointing to Singapore’s success in water recycling and the vibrant agricultural sector in arid Israel. “It’s about targeted investment, transitional finance and a willingness to do things differently,” he said. So much of Colorado’s water is used to irrigate cattle pastures that some water managers joked that the problem could be solved by millions of people adopting Meatless Mondays. An employee at the Carlsbad desalination plant in California fills a cup with filtered ocean water. Gregory Bull/The Associated Press Even a blunt force approach could secure significant water supplies at a cost that the American economy could absorb. The Carlsbad desalination plant outside of San Diego cost about US$1 billion to build and produces 56,000 acre feet per year of fresh water. This suggests, in rough terms, a $35 billion price tag for two million acres worth of desalination plants – less than 5 percent of the cost of health care and climate spending…
title: “Us Drought Gives Critics Of Arizona Dam New Argument To Demolish It Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-18” author: “Derek Morris”
Three years ago, Tick Segerblom received a call from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The agents wanted to talk to him. They refused to say why. “I’m thinking, ‘Oh my God — my political career, who knows what I’ve done,’” recalled Mr. Segerblom, a former Nevada state lawmaker and senator who is now a Clark County commissioner. When agents arrived at his office just north of the Vegas strip, “I’m sweating bullets,” he said. They started with a question: “You said you want to destroy Glen Canyon Dam?” The answer was yes. In fact, Mr. Segerblom had said so publicly, citing as his life’s ambition the destruction of the half-century-old dam that turned Glen Canyon into Lake Powell Reservoir. Before it flooded, the 273-kilometer-long Glen Canyon was considered one of the most beautiful places on the continent, rivaling the Grand Canyon. Its sinking is still considered by some to be one of the biggest environmental blunders in US history. “You don’t destroy a billion-year-old canyon — let alone build a city here in the desert so people can fly all over the world to come and play,” said Mr. Segerblom, who grew up rafting and water skiing on the Colorado River and spent three years as a guide before embarking on a career in law and politics. At the time of his conversation with the FBI, which did not lead to charges, the idea of sending one of the country’s most important pieces of infrastructure was not taken very seriously. Glen Canyon Dam, completed in 1966, provides water and electricity to people in Arizona. And it works alongside the Hoover Dam – both are landmark structures over 600 feet tall – to hold back the mountain meltwater that flows into the Colorado River. These waters provide year-round hydration to farmers and the approximately 42 million people living in the southwestern United States. But after 23 years of drought, the water behind the two dams has dropped to dangerously low levels. Each tank is now about a quarter of its capacity. Water managers have resorted to emergency measures to maintain hydroelectric generating capacity at Glen Canyon, holding back vast amounts of water and releasing additional amounts from upstream to keep the turbines running. Without that answer, it’s possible Glen Canyon’s electric generation would have stopped this year, said David Arend, deputy regional director at the US Bureau of Reclamation, which operates dams on the Colorado River. But these measures amount to a short-term solution, he said. The bureau’s latest 24-month forecast shows water levels will fall next summer to five and a half meters below the minimum needed to generate electricity. As the drought deepens, the Bureau of Reclamation is planning for all kinds of contingencies, including what to do if the water level drops below this minimum. The office is examining options for meeting the South West’s water needs through desalination, wastewater recycling and more efficient irrigation. The goal is “to preserve the entire system as we move forward,” Mr. Arendt said. Climate change has made it less likely that Lake Powell will return to its former levels in the future. Nathan VanderKlippe/The Globe and Mail But that system, the one that supports life in the US Southwest, now hangs in the balance like never before. Barring the sudden return of heavy winter snows – which climate change has made increasingly unlikely – water is unlikely to naturally return in large quantities to Glen Canyon’s Lake Powell. As scientists study the long-term process drying up the region, there’s never been a better time, some advocates say, to make a radical break with how water is managed. It’s time, they say, to allow water to flow freely past Glen Canyon Dam, restoring the canyon and its visual wonders to something closer to their natural state. “Our dams have failed. They don’t work,” said Richard Ingebretsen, a Utah physician and scholar who founded the Glen Canyon Institute, a group that has spent more than 25 years advocating for the restoration of the canyon. “They need to rethink the whole thing.” The idea of consigning Glen Canyon Dam to history “doesn’t seem so quixotic anymore,” Mr. Segerblom said. He and others want bypass tunnels built that would leave the dam standing but drain Lake Powell to bring a wild river back into Glen Canyon. Water flows from the dam’s bypass pipes in 2004. Jeff Topping/Getty Images The flooding of the canyon in the 1960s was controversial from the start. It was opposed by environmental groups and “river runners” – people who guided visitors through its narrow canals and developed an almost religious devotion to its grandeur. “Would you flood the Sistine Chapel? Would you flood the Mormon temple? To make money?’ asked Ken Sleight, who had traveled through Glen Canyon and the adjacent canyons hundreds of times before flooded. It became his home, he said – a place rich with archaeological evidence of more than 10,000 years of human use. Mr Sleight has not been back since 1973, when the waters rose. “There was no more Glen Canyon as I knew it,” he said. In the past two years, however, some of the places he knew began to return. Falling water levels have once again exposed the Cathedral in the Desert, a natural rock amphitheater crowned by a waterfall. The Gregory Bridge, a thick stone overpass that is among the longest natural bridges on earth, will likely come up completely by next year as reservoir levels drop. “I say glory, glory hallelujah to see that water come down,” said Mr. Sleight, a Colorado River legend who at 92 retains a vivid memory of its hidden corners and the people who once explored them. Restoring the canyon is just one of the necessary responses to the drought, he said. “I think we should just reduce the population,” he argued. “We don’t have to get rid of what we got, but you can just start saying, ‘Don’t have so many.’ “ Former river runner Ken Sleight, 92, has been opposed to the flooding of Glen Canyon for decades. Nathan VanderKlippe/The Globe and Mail It is a reflective view widespread anxiety about the extremity of the current water shortage. And it puts the stakes in stark relief for those determined to protect Western water supplies and the system built to provide them. Earlier this summer, Bureau of Recovery Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton warned, in comments to a US Senate committee, that the system has reached a tipping point. Seven states rely on the Colorado River basin and have failed to create plans for adequate cuts in water use. Ms Tutton said during a press conference earlier this week that It would take 15% to 30% reductions in usage – unprecedented cuts that may have to be imposed by the US government. “The system is reaching breaking point, and without action we cannot protect the system and the millions of Americans who rely on this critical resource,” he added. About two-thirds of Colorado’s water is used to irrigate fields that produce winter crops, meaning sharp water reductions are likely to be felt far away, including in Canada. Arizona and California alone exported nearly $900 million worth of vegetables, fruits and nuts to Canada in 2019. Such changes may not be temporary. What is happening along the Colorado River is often characterized as a drought. John Entsminger, general manager of the Las Vegas Valley Water District, argued that it’s best to think of it as desiccation — a long-term process, driven by climate change, that creates permanently drier conditions. The only solution, he said, would be a “permanent reduction in total water use by every sector in every state in the Colorado River Basin.” A century-old compact provides for the use of about 15 million acre-feet of water from the basin by the states that rely on it. “Some of the best climate scientists in the world tell us we’ll be lucky to have 11 million acre feet of water in the future,” Mr. Enzminger said. (An acre foot is 1.2 million liters.) But closing Glen Canyon Dam is not a viable solution, he said, because of its role in providing water and electricity to people in Arizona, including parts of the Navajo Nation. If no alternatives are found, he sees no other option but to keep the dam operating. Besides, said Chuck Cullom, executive director of the Upper Colorado River Commission, which oversees water allocation to states in the upper reaches of the watershed, there are ways to make better use of the remaining water supplies. “The technology to address this problem is readily available,” he said, pointing to Singapore’s success in water recycling and the vibrant agricultural sector in arid Israel. “It’s about targeted investment, transitional finance and a willingness to do things differently,” he said. So much of Colorado’s water is used to irrigate cattle pastures that some water managers joked that the problem could be solved by millions of people adopting Meatless Mondays. An employee at the Carlsbad desalination plant in California fills a cup with filtered ocean water. Gregory Bull/The Associated Press Even a blunt force approach could secure significant water supplies at a cost that the American economy could absorb. The Carlsbad desalination plant outside of San Diego cost about US$1 billion to build and produces 56,000 acre feet per year of fresh water. This suggests, in rough terms, a $35 billion price tag for two million acres worth of desalination plants – less than 5 percent of the cost of health care and climate spending…
title: “Us Drought Gives Critics Of Arizona Dam New Argument To Demolish It Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-04” author: “Barbara Mccormick”
Three years ago, Tick Segerblom received a call from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The agents wanted to talk to him. They refused to say why. “I’m thinking, ‘Oh my God — my political career, who knows what I’ve done,’” recalled Mr. Segerblom, a former Nevada state lawmaker and senator who is now a Clark County commissioner. When agents arrived at his office just north of the Vegas strip, “I’m sweating bullets,” he said. They started with a question: “You said you want to destroy Glen Canyon Dam?” The answer was yes. In fact, Mr. Segerblom had said so publicly, citing as his life’s ambition the destruction of the half-century-old dam that turned Glen Canyon into Lake Powell Reservoir. Before it flooded, the 273-kilometer-long Glen Canyon was considered one of the most beautiful places on the continent, rivaling the Grand Canyon. Its sinking is still considered by some to be one of the biggest environmental blunders in US history. “You don’t destroy a billion-year-old canyon — let alone build a city here in the desert so people can fly all over the world to come and play,” said Mr. Segerblom, who grew up rafting and water skiing on the Colorado River and spent three years as a guide before embarking on a career in law and politics. At the time of his conversation with the FBI, which did not lead to charges, the idea of sending one of the country’s most important pieces of infrastructure was not taken very seriously. Glen Canyon Dam, completed in 1966, provides water and electricity to people in Arizona. And it works alongside the Hoover Dam – both are landmark structures over 600 feet tall – to hold back the mountain meltwater that flows into the Colorado River. These waters provide year-round hydration to farmers and the approximately 42 million people living in the southwestern United States. But after 23 years of drought, the water behind the two dams has dropped to dangerously low levels. Each tank is now about a quarter of its capacity. Water managers have resorted to emergency measures to maintain hydroelectric generating capacity at Glen Canyon, holding back vast amounts of water and releasing additional amounts from upstream to keep the turbines running. Without that answer, it’s possible Glen Canyon’s electric generation would have stopped this year, said David Arend, deputy regional director at the US Bureau of Reclamation, which operates dams on the Colorado River. But these measures amount to a short-term solution, he said. The bureau’s latest 24-month forecast shows water levels will fall next summer to five and a half meters below the minimum needed to generate electricity. As the drought deepens, the Bureau of Reclamation is planning for all kinds of contingencies, including what to do if the water level drops below this minimum. The office is examining options for meeting the South West’s water needs through desalination, wastewater recycling and more efficient irrigation. The goal is “to preserve the entire system as we move forward,” Mr. Arendt said. Climate change has made it less likely that Lake Powell will return to its former levels in the future. Nathan VanderKlippe/The Globe and Mail But that system, the one that supports life in the US Southwest, now hangs in the balance like never before. Barring the sudden return of heavy winter snows – which climate change has made increasingly unlikely – water is unlikely to naturally return in large quantities to Glen Canyon’s Lake Powell. As scientists study the long-term process drying up the region, there’s never been a better time, some advocates say, to make a radical break with how water is managed. It’s time, they say, to allow water to flow freely past Glen Canyon Dam, restoring the canyon and its visual wonders to something closer to their natural state. “Our dams have failed. They don’t work,” said Richard Ingebretsen, a Utah physician and scholar who founded the Glen Canyon Institute, a group that has spent more than 25 years advocating for the restoration of the canyon. “They need to rethink the whole thing.” The idea of consigning Glen Canyon Dam to history “doesn’t seem so quixotic anymore,” Mr. Segerblom said. He and others want bypass tunnels built that would leave the dam standing but drain Lake Powell to bring a wild river back into Glen Canyon. Water flows from the dam’s bypass pipes in 2004. Jeff Topping/Getty Images The flooding of the canyon in the 1960s was controversial from the start. It was opposed by environmental groups and “river runners” – people who guided visitors through its narrow canals and developed an almost religious devotion to its grandeur. “Would you flood the Sistine Chapel? Would you flood the Mormon temple? To make money?’ asked Ken Sleight, who had traveled through Glen Canyon and the adjacent canyons hundreds of times before flooded. It became his home, he said – a place rich with archaeological evidence of more than 10,000 years of human use. Mr Sleight has not been back since 1973, when the waters rose. “There was no more Glen Canyon as I knew it,” he said. In the past two years, however, some of the places he knew began to return. Falling water levels have once again exposed the Cathedral in the Desert, a natural rock amphitheater crowned by a waterfall. The Gregory Bridge, a thick stone overpass that is among the longest natural bridges on earth, will likely come up completely by next year as reservoir levels drop. “I say glory, glory hallelujah to see that water come down,” said Mr. Sleight, a Colorado River legend who at 92 retains a vivid memory of its hidden corners and the people who once explored them. Restoring the canyon is just one of the necessary responses to the drought, he said. “I think we should just reduce the population,” he argued. “We don’t have to get rid of what we got, but you can just start saying, ‘Don’t have so many.’ “ Former river runner Ken Sleight, 92, has been opposed to the flooding of Glen Canyon for decades. Nathan VanderKlippe/The Globe and Mail It is a reflective view widespread anxiety about the extremity of the current water shortage. And it puts the stakes in stark relief for those determined to protect Western water supplies and the system built to provide them. Earlier this summer, Bureau of Recovery Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton warned, in comments to a US Senate committee, that the system has reached a tipping point. Seven states rely on the Colorado River basin and have failed to create plans for adequate cuts in water use. Ms Tutton said during a press conference earlier this week that It would take 15% to 30% reductions in usage – unprecedented cuts that may have to be imposed by the US government. “The system is reaching breaking point, and without action we cannot protect the system and the millions of Americans who rely on this critical resource,” he added. About two-thirds of Colorado’s water is used to irrigate fields that produce winter crops, meaning sharp water reductions are likely to be felt far away, including in Canada. Arizona and California alone exported nearly $900 million worth of vegetables, fruits and nuts to Canada in 2019. Such changes may not be temporary. What is happening along the Colorado River is often characterized as a drought. John Entsminger, general manager of the Las Vegas Valley Water District, argued that it’s best to think of it as desiccation — a long-term process, driven by climate change, that creates permanently drier conditions. The only solution, he said, would be a “permanent reduction in total water use by every sector in every state in the Colorado River Basin.” A century-old compact provides for the use of about 15 million acre-feet of water from the basin by the states that rely on it. “Some of the best climate scientists in the world tell us we’ll be lucky to have 11 million acre feet of water in the future,” Mr. Enzminger said. (An acre foot is 1.2 million liters.) But closing Glen Canyon Dam is not a viable solution, he said, because of its role in providing water and electricity to people in Arizona, including parts of the Navajo Nation. If no alternatives are found, he sees no other option but to keep the dam operating. Besides, said Chuck Cullom, executive director of the Upper Colorado River Commission, which oversees water allocation to states in the upper reaches of the watershed, there are ways to make better use of the remaining water supplies. “The technology to address this problem is readily available,” he said, pointing to Singapore’s success in water recycling and the vibrant agricultural sector in arid Israel. “It’s about targeted investment, transitional finance and a willingness to do things differently,” he said. So much of Colorado’s water is used to irrigate cattle pastures that some water managers joked that the problem could be solved by millions of people adopting Meatless Mondays. An employee at the Carlsbad desalination plant in California fills a cup with filtered ocean water. Gregory Bull/The Associated Press Even a blunt force approach could secure significant water supplies at a cost that the American economy could absorb. The Carlsbad desalination plant outside of San Diego cost about US$1 billion to build and produces 56,000 acre feet per year of fresh water. This suggests, in rough terms, a $35 billion price tag for two million acres worth of desalination plants – less than 5 percent of the cost of health care and climate spending…
title: “Us Drought Gives Critics Of Arizona Dam New Argument To Demolish It Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-24” author: “Lester Lozada”
Three years ago, Tick Segerblom received a call from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The agents wanted to talk to him. They refused to say why. “I’m thinking, ‘Oh my God — my political career, who knows what I’ve done,’” recalled Mr. Segerblom, a former Nevada state lawmaker and senator who is now a Clark County commissioner. When agents arrived at his office just north of the Vegas strip, “I’m sweating bullets,” he said. They started with a question: “You said you want to destroy Glen Canyon Dam?” The answer was yes. In fact, Mr. Segerblom had said so publicly, citing as his life’s ambition the destruction of the half-century-old dam that turned Glen Canyon into Lake Powell Reservoir. Before it flooded, the 273-kilometer-long Glen Canyon was considered one of the most beautiful places on the continent, rivaling the Grand Canyon. Its sinking is still considered by some to be one of the biggest environmental blunders in US history. “You don’t destroy a billion-year-old canyon — let alone build a city here in the desert so people can fly all over the world to come and play,” said Mr. Segerblom, who grew up rafting and water skiing on the Colorado River and spent three years as a guide before embarking on a career in law and politics. At the time of his conversation with the FBI, which did not lead to charges, the idea of sending one of the country’s most important pieces of infrastructure was not taken very seriously. Glen Canyon Dam, completed in 1966, provides water and electricity to people in Arizona. And it works alongside the Hoover Dam – both are landmark structures over 600 feet tall – to hold back the mountain meltwater that flows into the Colorado River. These waters provide year-round hydration to farmers and the approximately 42 million people living in the southwestern United States. But after 23 years of drought, the water behind the two dams has dropped to dangerously low levels. Each tank is now about a quarter of its capacity. Water managers have resorted to emergency measures to maintain hydroelectric generating capacity at Glen Canyon, holding back vast amounts of water and releasing additional amounts from upstream to keep the turbines running. Without that answer, it’s possible Glen Canyon’s electric generation would have stopped this year, said David Arend, deputy regional director at the US Bureau of Reclamation, which operates dams on the Colorado River. But these measures amount to a short-term solution, he said. The bureau’s latest 24-month forecast shows water levels will fall next summer to five and a half meters below the minimum needed to generate electricity. As the drought deepens, the Bureau of Reclamation is planning for all kinds of contingencies, including what to do if the water level drops below this minimum. The office is examining options for meeting the South West’s water needs through desalination, wastewater recycling and more efficient irrigation. The goal is “to preserve the entire system as we move forward,” Mr. Arendt said. Climate change has made it less likely that Lake Powell will return to its former levels in the future. Nathan VanderKlippe/The Globe and Mail But that system, the one that supports life in the US Southwest, now hangs in the balance like never before. Barring the sudden return of heavy winter snows – which climate change has made increasingly unlikely – water is unlikely to naturally return in large quantities to Glen Canyon’s Lake Powell. As scientists study the long-term process drying up the region, there’s never been a better time, some advocates say, to make a radical break with how water is managed. It’s time, they say, to allow water to flow freely past Glen Canyon Dam, restoring the canyon and its visual wonders to something closer to their natural state. “Our dams have failed. They don’t work,” said Richard Ingebretsen, a Utah physician and scholar who founded the Glen Canyon Institute, a group that has spent more than 25 years advocating for the restoration of the canyon. “They need to rethink the whole thing.” The idea of consigning Glen Canyon Dam to history “doesn’t seem so quixotic anymore,” Mr. Segerblom said. He and others want bypass tunnels built that would leave the dam standing but drain Lake Powell to bring a wild river back into Glen Canyon. Water flows from the dam’s bypass pipes in 2004. Jeff Topping/Getty Images The flooding of the canyon in the 1960s was controversial from the start. It was opposed by environmental groups and “river runners” – people who guided visitors through its narrow canals and developed an almost religious devotion to its grandeur. “Would you flood the Sistine Chapel? Would you flood the Mormon temple? To make money?’ asked Ken Sleight, who had traveled through Glen Canyon and the adjacent canyons hundreds of times before flooded. It became his home, he said – a place rich with archaeological evidence of more than 10,000 years of human use. Mr Sleight has not been back since 1973, when the waters rose. “There was no more Glen Canyon as I knew it,” he said. In the past two years, however, some of the places he knew began to return. Falling water levels have once again exposed the Cathedral in the Desert, a natural rock amphitheater crowned by a waterfall. The Gregory Bridge, a thick stone overpass that is among the longest natural bridges on earth, will likely come up completely by next year as reservoir levels drop. “I say glory, glory hallelujah to see that water come down,” said Mr. Sleight, a Colorado River legend who at 92 retains a vivid memory of its hidden corners and the people who once explored them. Restoring the canyon is just one of the necessary responses to the drought, he said. “I think we should just reduce the population,” he argued. “We don’t have to get rid of what we got, but you can just start saying, ‘Don’t have so many.’ “ Former river runner Ken Sleight, 92, has been opposed to the flooding of Glen Canyon for decades. Nathan VanderKlippe/The Globe and Mail It is a reflective view widespread anxiety about the extremity of the current water shortage. And it puts the stakes in stark relief for those determined to protect Western water supplies and the system built to provide them. Earlier this summer, Bureau of Recovery Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton warned, in comments to a US Senate committee, that the system has reached a tipping point. Seven states rely on the Colorado River basin and have failed to create plans for adequate cuts in water use. Ms Tutton said during a press conference earlier this week that It would take 15% to 30% reductions in usage – unprecedented cuts that may have to be imposed by the US government. “The system is reaching breaking point, and without action we cannot protect the system and the millions of Americans who rely on this critical resource,” he added. About two-thirds of Colorado’s water is used to irrigate fields that produce winter crops, meaning sharp water reductions are likely to be felt far away, including in Canada. Arizona and California alone exported nearly $900 million worth of vegetables, fruits and nuts to Canada in 2019. Such changes may not be temporary. What is happening along the Colorado River is often characterized as a drought. John Entsminger, general manager of the Las Vegas Valley Water District, argued that it’s best to think of it as desiccation — a long-term process, driven by climate change, that creates permanently drier conditions. The only solution, he said, would be a “permanent reduction in total water use by every sector in every state in the Colorado River Basin.” A century-old compact provides for the use of about 15 million acre-feet of water from the basin by the states that rely on it. “Some of the best climate scientists in the world tell us we’ll be lucky to have 11 million acre feet of water in the future,” Mr. Enzminger said. (An acre foot is 1.2 million liters.) But closing Glen Canyon Dam is not a viable solution, he said, because of its role in providing water and electricity to people in Arizona, including parts of the Navajo Nation. If no alternatives are found, he sees no other option but to keep the dam operating. Besides, said Chuck Cullom, executive director of the Upper Colorado River Commission, which oversees water allocation to states in the upper reaches of the watershed, there are ways to make better use of the remaining water supplies. “The technology to address this problem is readily available,” he said, pointing to Singapore’s success in water recycling and the vibrant agricultural sector in arid Israel. “It’s about targeted investment, transitional finance and a willingness to do things differently,” he said. So much of Colorado’s water is used to irrigate cattle pastures that some water managers joked that the problem could be solved by millions of people adopting Meatless Mondays. An employee at the Carlsbad desalination plant in California fills a cup with filtered ocean water. Gregory Bull/The Associated Press Even a blunt force approach could secure significant water supplies at a cost that the American economy could absorb. The Carlsbad desalination plant outside of San Diego cost about US$1 billion to build and produces 56,000 acre feet per year of fresh water. This suggests, in rough terms, a $35 billion price tag for two million acres worth of desalination plants – less than 5 percent of the cost of health care and climate spending…
