{"id":383,"date":"2023-05-31T01:12:34","date_gmt":"2023-05-31T01:12:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.environmentallyengaged.org\/?p=383"},"modified":"2025-04-21T08:51:55","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T08:51:55","slug":"finallyrising-water-levels-but-cuts-are-still-needed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.environmentallyengaged.org\/?p=383","title":{"rendered":"Finally\u2026Rising Water Levels, but Cuts are Still Needed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This has been one of the wettest years for the Rocky Mountains since the drought began 23 years ago.<br>The unprecedented snowfall reached 174% above median levels by mid-April. So far, the resulting<br>snowmelt has Lakes Powell and Mead at levels of 3,525 feet and 1,049 feet, respectively. The critical<br>threshold is 3,490 for Lake Powell and 950 for Lake Mead \u2013 if the water levels fall below these, the Lakes<br>are at deadpool and will not be able to continue producing hydropower. And the snow is still melting! It<br>is predicted that by the end of the year, the Lake levels are projected to be at 3,573 feet for Powell and<br>1,068 feet for Mead \u2013 both nearly 30 feet higher than previously predicted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Just because water levels are increasing now, that doesn\u2019t mean the Southwestern states don\u2019t have to<br>agree on water cuts. During the 23-year drought, the wettest years have typically been followed by<br>some of the driest. Experts say it is unlikely that similar precipitation will happen next year. If the states<br>don\u2019t make the cuts needed now, the water levels will continue to decline, and the region will struggle<br>to deliver the water needed to residents and businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-style-default\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/www.environmentallyengaged.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/IMG_0651-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-385\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.environmentallyengaged.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/IMG_0651-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.environmentallyengaged.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/IMG_0651-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.environmentallyengaged.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/IMG_0651-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.environmentallyengaged.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/IMG_0651-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.environmentallyengaged.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/IMG_0651-2000x1500.jpg 2000w, https:\/\/www.environmentallyengaged.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/IMG_0651.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">Cited Sources<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Joe Duhownik\/Courthouse News Service, Arizona Mirror May 8. \u201cLower Colorado River Water Users Anticipate Dry 2024, Deep Federal Cuts to Usage.\u201d <em>Arizona Mirror<\/em>, 8 May 2023, www.azmirror.com\/2023\/05\/08\/lower-colorado-river-water-users-anticipate-dry-2024-deep-federal-cuts-to-usage\/.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This has been one of the wettest years for the Rocky Mountains since the drought began 23 years ago.The unprecedented snowfall reached 174% above median levels by mid-April. So far, the resultingsnowmelt has Lakes Powell and Mead at levels of 3,525 feet and 1,049 feet, respectively. The criticalthreshold is 3,490 for Lake Powell and 950 &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.environmentallyengaged.org\/?p=383\" class=\"more-link\">Read more<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Finally\u2026Rising Water Levels, but Cuts are Still Needed&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.environmentallyengaged.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.environmentallyengaged.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.environmentallyengaged.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.environmentallyengaged.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.environmentallyengaged.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=383"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.environmentallyengaged.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":386,"href":"https:\/\/www.environmentallyengaged.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383\/revisions\/386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.environmentallyengaged.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.environmentallyengaged.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.environmentallyengaged.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}