Paul Bruchez’s family has ranched cattle in Colorado for five generations. And twice in his lifetime, his generation has nearly become the last. The first time, it was the city of Denver that squeezed them out. By the 1990s, when Bruchez was still in high school, the city’s fast-growing suburbs had swept north and totally surrounded their roughly 2,000 acres in Westminster.
For the first time in nearly two decades, the federal government tapped Glen Canyon Dam for extra power generating capacity this weekend, triggering emergency water releases as heat waves persisted across the West.
As temperatures hit records in California, power providers turned to sources in Nevada, Utah and Arizona to cope with the surge in demand across its electrical grid.
Summer energy demands driven higher as the COVID-19 pandemic keeps more people at home could lead to more water flowing from Glen Canyon Dam into the Colorado River.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation recommends river runners secure their vessels to withstand changing levels and campers should set up tents in areas out of reach of the river. Officials plan to release higher-than-normal amounts of water from Glen Canyon Dam, possibly without notice, which will cause rapid changes to the Colorado River’s flow.
The Western Area Power Administration says there’s a possibility that Glen Canyon Dam will be needed to augment regional power supplies in the event of a system emergency. Releases could last a couple hours or even longer and the fluctuations will be more noticeable on weekends.
The water has made development possible and is used for farms, homes and businesses. Meanwhile, recreation has risen to over 4 million annual visitors in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, with tourists bringing in over $420 million to local communities.
Water managers from throughout the Colorado River Basin took the stage at the Colorado River Water Users Association conference earlier this month to talk about conserving water in the face of the twin threats to the river: increasing demand and climate change.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
