Lake Powell water level dips to historic low - NBC News

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Government officials had to begin releasing water from sources upstream last month to keep the lake’s level from dropping so low it would have threatened hydropower supplied by the dam.

It comes as less snowpack flows into the Colorado River and its tributaries, and hot temperatures parch soil and cause more river water to evaporate as it streams through the drought-plagued American West. Studies have linked the region’s more than 20-year megadrought to human-caused climate change.

Fluctuating water levels have long been a staple of Lake Powell, but National Park Service officials say the usual forecasts weren’t able to predict just how bad 2021 would be.

Finger-pointing has started as boaters, local officials and the park service debate what to do now.

“The park service has failed to plan,” area homeowner Bill Schneider said. “If it gets to the point where we’re so low that you can’t put boats in the water and you can’t come up with a solution to put boats in the water, why would you come to Lake Powell?”

The 53-year-old bought a retirement home in nearby Page, Arizona, after completing 25 years of military service in February. He wanted to return to Wahweap Bay where he spent most of his childhood and teen years fishing, waterskiing and working odd jobs around the lake. But after watching how the lake has been managed, Schneider says he’s starting to regret it.

A family's houseboat is pulled from the Wahweap launch ramp after a three-week vacation.Rick Bowmer / AP

Officials say they have solutions for families and boaters who sometimes plan years ahead to explore the glassy waters that extend into narrow red rock canyons and the tourism industry that depends on them.

Once the severity of the drought became clear, federal officials began looking for options to allow boat access at low water levels, said William Shott, superintendent of the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, where Lake Powell is located. The park service discovered an old ramp on Wahweap Bay that will be built out to support houseboats and smaller motorboats.

Shott says he hopes the $3 million ramp can be completed by Labor Day weekend. The project is funded by the park service and lake concessionaire Aramark.

The agency and officials from the town of Page, which relies on lake tourism, plan to open another old asphalt ramp to provide access for smaller boats while the larger one is updated.

Tom Materna, who has been visiting Lake Powell for 20 years, launched his family’s 65-foot (20-meter) timeshare houseboat just hours before the main ramp closed but had to cut their vacation short as water levels dropped in mid-July.

“They said no more launching out of the Wahweap ramp, so we were glad we made it out,” the Los Angeles resident said. “Then the next day I think or two days later, they called us up and told us that all launch and retrieve houseboats had to be off the lake.”

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Lake Powell water level dips to historic low - NBC News
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