Drought Unearths a Buried Treasure By SANDRA BLAKESLEE
What Mr. Abbey and the Sierra Club couldn’t or didn’t do nature has now accomplished. A severe Western drought – some say the worst in 500 years – is shrinking Lake Powell at the rate of up to a foot every four days. Since 1999, the vast reservoir has lost more than 60 percent of its water.
Glen Canyon is returning. It is open and viewable in much of its former glory. At the confluence of Coyote Creek and Escalante River, where boaters once motored by to see famous rock formations, backpackers now pick their way up a shallow river channel. Fifteen-foot high cottonwoods grow amid thickets of willow, gamble oak and tamarisk. Where fish thrived, mountain lions prowl.
The change may be permanent.
“Short of several back-to-back years with 100-year runoff, Lake Powell will never be full again,” said Dr. Tom Myers, a hydrologic consultant in Reno, Nev. Downstream users now consume 16.5 million acre-feet of water, but on average only 15 million acre-feet flow into the system each year, he said. Add more than a million acre-feet of water lost to evaporation and it is obvious that only during relatively wet years is it possible to add water. …
The changes are stunning. When it was full five years ago, the lake had 250 square miles of flat water and thousands of miles of fractal shoreline. Each year, two and a half million people came to enjoy vacations with boating, swimming, fishing. The lake was rimmed by a starkly beautiful landscape; filmmakers shot movies like “Planet of the Apes” and “The Greatest Story Ever Told.”
Today the lake is down 129 feet, back to the size it was in 1970, covering 131 square miles. Canyon walls are plastered with a chalky white bathtub ring of calcium carbonate 10 stories high, where the water once reached. Towering benches of silt line the former lake bed. This year 1.8 million visitors are expected. …
In two years, depending on the weather, Lake Powell could reach what hydrologists call inactive pool, meaning the water stored in the lake will not produce enough flow to generate hydroelectric power. A year or two after that, water could drop another 120 feet.
At that point, because of the steepness of canyon walls at the dam, Lake Powell would still have two million acre feet of water spanning 32 square miles, offering continued recreation opportunities.
At that same point, hundreds of miles of side canyons would emerge into sunlight offering backpackers a chance to see what was lost. … Canyons that would be exposed include Dungeon, Labyrinth, Anasazi, Iceberg, Moki, Last Chance, Mystery Rock, Hidden Passage, Twilight and Lost Eden.