By Trevor Hughes
USA TODAY
Historic snowfall across the Rocky Mountains is helping recharge some of the country’s biggest reservoirs and provide – briefly – some much-needed breathing room for the oversubscribed Colorado River.
Forecasts say the melting snow flowing into Lake Powell via the Colorado River and its tributaries could hit 177% of average this year, a major boost at a time when lake levels had hit historic lows. The levels are now headed up and will likely peak sometime in June, raising the surface by 50 feet.
But experts say the boost won’t solve or even significantly delay the West’s water crisis that has drained the massive Lake Powell and Lake Mead reservoirs – Lake Powell will probably only be about 40% full this fall, far below what it once held.
“This buys a year. It doesn’t remotely come close to solving the long-term problems.”
Colorado River expert Brad Udall
Meanwhile, at Lake Powell this week, authorities released billions of gallons of water downstream through the Grand Canyon as part of an attempt to rebuild beaches and create new fish habitats. It’s a long-planned experiment that might have been halted if water levels in the reservoir had kept dropping.
What does the Colorado River snowpack look like?
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