A large, looming headline hit my phone, “As climate change and overuse shrink Lake Powell, the emergent landscape is coming back to life – and posing new challenges.” At the headline’s conclusion, the negativity almost sounds positive. The piece in the Conversation was written by Daniel Craig McCool, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, at the University of Utah. Perfect – a political scientist talking on a physical one. That is quite apropos.
Of course, climate change is an essential villain of the left, so it being named and blamed is not surprising. However, if we look at the inflows versus outflows into Lake Powell In acre-feet per day for the last four years we find:
INFLOW OUTFLOW VARIANCE
6638 8232 -1594
8158 9614 -1456
5965 10741 -4776
8094 11310 -3216
TOTALS 28855 39897 11042
So the outflow which could be water usage or sent on down to Lake Meade and the Hoover Dam was 11,042 acre-feet per day in excess of inflow or 3,598,046,742 gallons. The table in the Lake Powell Water Database shows all of the water values since the creation of Lake Powell in 1963. Further, you will note other years in the table where inflows were light and outflows remained high.
Reading my article of September 1, 2022, “How to Read the Mead” you will discover why the water in Lake Mead is also shrinking and it has nothing to do with the alarmist’s favorite doctrine. It will also provide significant evidence why the Glen Canyon Dam that formed Lake Powell must continue to open its gates irrespective of water levels or inflows.
In California, the people are leaving for less taxed and torched places, yet the rains keep coming. The alarmist politicians and activist bureaucrats have cried for years that the drought in California would remain in perpetuity. One winter and the drought is over, but like all natural cycles, the droughts will come again.
While the current snowpack in Colorado is at 133% of average or median, some inflow into Lake Powell will increase in the spring and summer of 2023 – perhaps more if heavy snows continue, however, outflows will not decrease. Again man’s emissions, not decisions, will continue to be deceptively blamed.
