[RE]

HCN.ORG • 2026-02-15

The coming failure of Glen Canyon Dam

For decades, the seven Basin states have used more water than the river delivers by drawing their entitlements from surpluses banked in reservoirs during the wet 1980s and '90s, chiefly in Lake Mead and Lake Powell. Never mind that those entitlements were based on an over-estimate of river flows in 1922, when the Colorado River Compact was established, rendering the "paper" water of the entitlements essentially a fiction, not to mention a source of continual conflict. That savings account has now been drained: Mead and Powell are each below 30% full, and the trend is steadily downward. Global warming has only accelerated the decline: So far this century, the river's flow has fallen 20% from its long-term annual averages, and scientists forecast more of the same as the climate continues to heat up.

The snowpack is supposed to be really thin this winter, so maybe this is the summer Lake Powell finally hits Dead Pool level.  Even if it doesn't though, the water wars out west are gonna start getting serious.  Who gets it, the farmers or the rich suburbs?  Poor folks of course won't get any, that's not an issue. lol.

RE