Federal officials said Thursday they will not release cool water this year from one of the Colorado River’s major reservoirs, which would have protected a threatened native fish downstream but put more strain on already struggling hydropower production.In an email obtained by The Associated Press, the Bureau of Reclamation told various groups that water from Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona would not be released “due to significant hydropower generation concerns under already strained system conditions.” As the Colorado River and its once massive reservoirs shrink from overuse and climate change, officials were faced with a decision that pits conservation of the humpback chub — a threatened fish native to the river — against ratepayer costs for electricity.The decision comes after the worst snowpack on record for the Colorado River Basin, relied upon by farmers, industries, wildlife, hydropower and more than 40 million people in seven U.S. states, tribal nations and Mexico. It also comes a week after federal officials announced a proposal to stave off a crisis in the beleaguered waterway.
Officials stepped in after states that rely on the river — California, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Wyoming and Utah — failed to reach an agreement on how to share the dwindling resource long-term. Under the proposal, California, Nevada and Arizona would share water cuts. A “cool mix flow” is when cold water is released from deep in a reservoir — in this case Lake Powell — to cool the river below. There are no hydropower turbines in the cool, deep section, so significant power generation would have been lost.
