Fill Mead First: a technical assessment

Utah State University | November 10th, 2019

The Fill Mead First (FMF) plan would establish Lake Mead reservoir as the primary water storage facility of the main-stem Colorado River and would relegate Lake

The Fill Mead First (FMF) plan would establish Lake Mead reservoir as the primary water storage facility of the main-stem Colorado River and would relegate Lake Powell reservoir to a secondary water storage facility to be used only when Lake Mead is full. The objectives of the FMF plan are to re-expose some of Glen Canyon’s sandstone walls that are now inundated, begin the process of re-creating a riverine ecosystem in Glen Canyon, restore a more natural stream-flow, temperature, and sediment-supply regime of the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon ecosystem, and reduce system-wide water losses caused by evaporation and movement of reservoir water into ground-water storage. The FMF plan would be implemented in three phases. Phase I would involve lowering Lake Powell to the minimum elevation at which hydroelectricity can still be produced (called minimum power pool elevation): 3490 ft asl (feet above sea level). At this elevation, the water surface area of Lake Powell is approximately 77 mi2, which is 31% of the surface area when the reservoir is full. Phase II of the FMF plan would involve lowering Lake Powell to dead pool elevation (3370 ft asl), abandoning hydroelectricity generation, and releasing water only through the river outlets. The water surface area of Lake Powell at dead pool is approximately 32 mi2 and is 13% of the reservoir surface area when it is full. Implementation of Phase III would necessitate drilling new diversion tunnels around Glen Canyon Dam in order to eliminate all water storage at Lake Powell. In this paper, we summarize the FMF plan and identify critical details about the plan’s implementation that are presently unknown. We estimate changes in evaporation losses and ground-water storage that would occur if the FMF plan was implemented, based on review of existing data and published reports. We also discuss significant river-ecosystem issues that would arise if the plan was implemented.

Finishing the All-American Canal

Scientific American | September 1st, 2020

Work on the All-American Canal is going forward so rapidly that the great 80-mile ditch and its appurtenant features will be ready to de­liver irrigation water to the Im

Work on the All-American Canal is going forward so rapidly that the great 80-mile ditch and its appurtenant features will be ready to de­liver irrigation water to the Imperial Valley in southeastern California some time during the first half of 1938. The waterway is being dug across a normally desert region that once formed the wa­ter bed of the prehistoric northern ex­tension of the Gulf of California, as we know it today. Paradoxically, that far­ flung section of the Gulf was transform­ ed into a generally barren and arid region by the very river that is to be tapped to assure the continued agricul­tural productivity · of soil that can be made amazingly fruitful by irrigation.

Fixing the Flawed Colorado River Compact

American Geophysical Union (AGU) | June 16th, 2023

Formation of California's Salton Sea in 1905-07 was not "accidental"

2020 Desert Symposium Field Guide and Proceedings | April 26th, 2020

It is widely thought that the Salton Sea was created accidentally in 1905-07 because of engineering negligence in the diversion of Colorado River water for agricultural u

It is widely thought that the Salton Sea was created accidentally in 1905-07 because of engineering negligence in the diversion of Colorado River water for agricultural use in California’s Imperial Valley. This is a misconception. Scientific data and historical records establish that formation of the Salton Sea was not accidental. The lake formed during 1905-07 in the same manner that numerous other large Salton Basin lakes did for at least tens of thousands of years from the Late Pleistocene through the late 19th century: as a result of the lower Colorado River’s natural hydrodynamic regime, floodplain morphodynamics, and established avulsion style in combination with changes in streamflow attributable to regional hydroclimate. A large body of scientific and historical evidence indicates the 1905-07 Colorado River flooding into the Salton Basin and the creation of a large lake there would have occurred regardless of man-made modifications to the river’s natural levee and distributary channels. In fact, the flooding would likely have been even worse in the absence of human intervention.

From Desert Wasteland to Agricultural Wonderland: The Story of Water and Power

Imperial Irrigation District (IID) | October 3rd, 1977

Funding Opportunity for Voluntary Participation in the Lower Colorado Conservation and Efficiency Program

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) | October 12th, 2022

Future dryness in the southwest US and the hydrology of the early 21st century drought

National Academy of Sciences (NAS) | December 14th, 2010

Recently the Southwest has experienced a spate of dryness, which presents a challenge to the sustainability of current water use by human and natural systems in

Recently the Southwest has experienced a spate of dryness, which presents a challenge to the sustainability of current water use by human and natural systems in the region. In the Colorado River Basin, the early 21st century drought has been the most extreme in over a century of Colorado River flows, and might occur in any given century with probability of only 60%. However, hydrological model runs from downscaled Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment climate change simulations suggest that the region is likely to become drier and experience more severe droughts than this. In the latter half of the 21st century the models produced considerably greater drought activity, parti- cularly in the Colorado River Basin, as judged from soil moisture anomalies and other hydrological measures. As in the historical record, most of the simulated extreme droughts build up and per- sist over many years. Durations of depleted soil moisture over the historical record ranged from 4 to 10 years, but in the 21st century simulations, some of the dry events persisted for 12 years or more. Summers during the observed early 21st century drought were re- markably warm, a feature also evident in many simulated droughts of the 21st century. These severe future droughts are aggravated by enhanced, globally warmed temperatures that reduce spring snowpack and late spring and summer soil moisture. As the climate continues to warm and soil moisture deficits accumulate beyond historical levels, the model simulations suggest that sustaining water supplies in parts of the Southwest will be a challenge.

Geohydrology of the Parker-Blythe-Cibola Area, Arizona and California

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) | July 16th, 1973

The Parker-Blythe-Cibola area, as defined in this report, extends from the bedrock narrows north of Parker, Ariz., southward for about 85 miles along the valley of the Co

The Parker-Blythe-Cibola area, as defined in this report, extends from the bedrock narrows north of Parker, Ariz., southward for about 85 miles along the valley of the Colorado River to the bedrock narrows below Cibola, Ariz. The area is about midway between Hoover Dam and the Gulf of California. It includes parts of Yuma County, Ariz., and Imperial, Riverside, and San Bernardino Counties, Calif.

Good Samaritan Remediation of Abandoned Hardrock Mines Act of 2024

U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) | December 17th, 2024

To promote remediation of abandoned hardrock mines.

To promote remediation of abandoned hardrock mines.

GRACE satellite observations reveal the severity of recent water over-consumption in the United States

Nature Portfolio (Springer Nature) | August 18th, 2017

Changes in the climate and population growth will critically impact the future supply and demand of water, leading to large uncertainties for sustainable resour

Changes in the climate and population growth will critically impact the future supply and demand of water, leading to large uncertainties for sustainable resource management. In the absence of on-the-ground measurements to provide spatially continuous, high-resolution information on water supplies, satellite observations can provide essential insight. Here, we develop a technique using observations from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite to evaluate the sustainability of surface water and groundwater use over the continental United States. We determine the annual total water availability for 2003–2015 using the annual variability in GRACE-derived total water storage for 18 major watersheds. The long-term sustainable water quantity available to humans is calculated by subtracting an annual estimate of the water needed to maintain local ecosystems, and the resulting water volumes are compared to reported consumptive water use to determine a sustainability fraction. We find over-consumption is highest in the southwest US, where increasing stress trends were observed in all five basins and annual consumptive use exceeded 100% availability twice in the Lower Colorado basin during 2003–2015. By providing a coarse-scale evaluation of sustainable water use from satellite and ground observations, the established framework serves as a blueprint for future large-scale water resource monitoring.