Lake Powell is Gone For Good...LA Times

[funkcity]

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-op-lakepowell19jun19,0,4032696,print.story
Houseboat Heaven: Flush It
The "Jewel of the Colorado" Is Gone for Good
By Wade Graham
LA Times June 19, 2005
<<<clip
Lake Powell will soon be no more — at least the Lake Powell that Americans have known for nearly 40 years: the green lake shimmering incongruously in the baking red desert of southern Utah and northern Arizona, a play land for houseboaters created when the federal Bureau of Reclamation shut the gates of the new Glen Canyon Dam in 1963.>>>
<<< The facts are clear — and startling. Drought didn't drain the reservoir, as commonly believed. Rising demand for water did. Simply put, we are taking more water out of the river than nature puts in.>>>
To any of you who have enjoyed boating on Lake Powell as me and my family have this is downright depressing

[Big Bear]

Just read it. How sad! I'd like to wish they were wrong, but sadly everything they say sounds like it is factual.
I suppose for people like me that have never been there, the time to go is now or very soon if I want to experience the place.

[DUNDUN]

yeah that does suck..and ive never been there either..its one of those trips that weve been planning forever that just hasnt been able to happen...
super depressing.

[Mandelon]

Its an opinion piece.
Please don't take everything you read in the LA Times as a fact..... :hammerhea

[callbob4homes]

"the sky is falling, the sky is falling" :hammerhea

[bigerich]

If you look at the credentials of the write at the end of the second page, you will see that he is an "environmentalist" and works for the Glen Canyon Institute, which is a non profit group dedicated to the restoration of a free flowing Colorado River through Glen Canyon. Those things lead me to beleive that he has written a very biased article. If it is true, I am way bummed, I have spent many many weeks on Lake Powell, over the last 29 years.

[DUNDUN]

"the sky is falling, the sky is falling" :hammerhea
haha yeah pretty much! :hammer2:

[HM]

L.A. times is the biggest pile of steaming crap. Accuracy means nothing to them...infact the national enquirer is more accurate.
Their M.O. is the sky is falling and GW is to blame for it.
Do not believe anything negative about lake powell until after you check their credentials. These people would never post anything that would be in favor of keeping the lake.
And what dumb article anyway...."it was not the drought, it was demand".....dumbass...where else are we supposed to get water when it is in short supply? I think I will send Frenchie over to jerk off his dog. :D

[Spotondl]

Its an opinion piece.
Please don't take everything you read in the LA Times as a fact..... :hammerhea
Exactly... Especially when it is written by a guy who sits on a Glen Canyon conservancy commission.

[funkcity]

While I am very familiar with the "accuracy" of the LATimes (I've cancelled it many times because of it) I would be interested in the math.
Is this guy totally full of it or is there some basic truth and history to his assessment? Nevada, Arizona and SoCal are booming and growing at a relentless pace.....so if you have other info I'm all ears!!

[Wonderboy]

L.A. times is the biggest pile of steaming crap. Accuracy means nothing to them...infact the national enquirer is more accurate.
Their M.O. is the sky is falling and GW is to blame for it.
Do not believe anything negative about lake powell until after you check their credentials. These people would never post anything that would be in favor of keeping the lake.
And what dumb article anyway...."it was not the drought, it was demand".....dumbass...where else are we supposed to get water when it is in short supply? I think I will send Frenchie over to jerk off his dog. :D
Well put. Unfortunately the people that will have any say so in the future of Lake Powell will probably only remember these types of articles. Because how many articles are out there in favor of keeping the lake?

[Rexone]

There's been some lengthly threads on the water subject before. Do a search here on Lake Powell and you'll probably find some good info on water usage vs supply re: Lake Powell and the Colorado River.
Personally I wouldn't put much weight behind someone writing for the LA rag belonging to the organization that would like to see the dam torn down. Just a thought. :idea:
Another consideration... These dams were built to supply water in times of drought as well as flood control. Historically you can see the pattern over decades. And there is no question we have been in the midst of drought conditions the past few years. It's a normal and repeating part of nature. There will be wet years and there will be dry years. Lake levels rise and fall accordingly over time. Burt can probably pull the year out of his head but Lake Mead was lower than it is now for a period of time between 10-20 years ago.

[Sleek-Jet]

Remember, what alot of these "enviromental" peeps want is to be able to have commercial rafting operations down the Colorado River and Glen Canyon... That and commercial guided hiking and back country operations...
What really tweeks them off is that you and I go enjoy this part of the world without having pay some ageing hippy/granola peep a grand a day to do it.
Look through most of thier bullshit... it's all about money.

[Mardonzi]

Well,, I just walked out the front door and looked,, Lake Powell is still there,,,,
I haven't read it but figure that Mande is right,, it's an opinion piece.
It just goes to show you that there is very little truth or integrity in todays quest for sensationalism in journalism. If it sells papers or advertising, it's good. It's always easier to print a small retraction on Page 11 than it is to get the story right. It speaks loudly of the L.A. Times's objectivity to see something like this printed outside of an editorial context, if that's how it was presented.
The truth and reality of the issue is that without the Colorado River storage network of reseviors, Southern Cal, Nevada, and Arizona couldn't handle the populations that have grown by leaps and bounds over the past 30 years. The Bureau of Reclamation has said time and time again that this is the case.
As far as postive press, there has been some, but not as much as there has been of the "chicken little" reports. Best thing you can do is use your word of mouth,,, Lake Powell is OPEN FOR BUSINESS!!
On a side note,, I've run across these Glen Canyon Institute clowns,, they put on a demonstration here about 5 years ago,, touting how they were going to have 10's of thousands of demonstrators here,, All in all, about 75 showed up, as opposed to about 2,000 pro lake people, and half of them were the Rainbow's (hippies that travel around and protest for all sorts of enviromental causes). The parking lot where they staged ended up full of trash, which us locals ended up cleaning up. Says alot for their noble cause,, doesn't it.

[hotlavey]

Its an opinion piece.
Please don't take everything you read in the LA Times as a fact..... :hammerhea
Don't take ANYTHING you read in the LA Times as fact.

[Wet Dream]

Even if it were true, when are the dumbasses down there going to realize that more reserviors are going to have to be built? The need for more water has been an issue for decades and nothing is being done because of what appears to be the bullshit from granola biting yogurt sucking environmentalist tree hugging faggots. Goddam that pisses me off. For years I've heard these water fights between Nevada, norcal, socal, so on and f'ing so forth. Nobody wants to give it up and nobody wants to dam it up. Ponderous...f'ing ponderous.

[hotlavey]

Even if it were true, when are the dumbasses down there going to realize that more reserviors are going to have to be built? The need for more water has been an issue for decades and nothing is being done because of what appears to be the bullshit from granola biting yogurt sucking environmentalist tree hugging faggots. Goddam that pisses me off. For years I've heard these water fights between Nevada, norcal, socal, so on and f'ing so forth. Nobody wants to give it up and nobody wants to dam it up. Ponderous...f'ing ponderous.
I'm sure the illegal imigration problem hasn't helped the water problem either.

[Wet Dream]

Of course not, but I'm sure you don't want any help from Mexico and their water system. :squiggle:

[Debbolas]

As long as I've been going to Lake Powell,( 10 years) there's been a rumor that they are going to drain it.
On one hand I feel bad for the ancient indian dwellings covered up by the lake.
On the other hand, I LOVE boating there! There is no other lake like it :D

[shueman]

Its an opinion piece.
Please don't take everything you read in the LA Times as a fact..... :hammerhea
POS journalism......no where near factual....if you want some reality data, check the BOR website....

[sea2lake]

i was just reading yesterday where the lake rises about 6-8 inches a day, what is up with that?

[jeepinscott]

You know what reservoirs are for? Holding excess water for when we need it later. The past 7 years we needed more water than has been available in the colorado river basin. We used the reservoirs! That's what they are there for! Powell and Mead are the only two reservoirs, the other two are not.
I'm gonna run hoover up just cause I can!

[Boatcop]

Jeepinscott got it half right.
Hoover Dam and Lake Mead were created to supply water (and power) to the Southwest.
Parker Dam and Lake Havasu were created for 2 basic reasons. 1) to hold water to supply to the LA Metropolitan Water Distrct, and 2) to supply power to the Havasu Pumping Station to pump water to LA.
Davis Dam and Lake Mohave were created because too much water was flowing through Parker Dam and wasted into Mexico.
Here's where the politics of Southwestern Water comes in. We have a treaty with Mexico that says we have to give them XXXX acre feet of water per year. We were giving them way too much, so we had to devise a method of retaining the excess water. Hence...Davis Dam. Add to this all the other contracts for water from Arizona, California, other water districts, cities, various Indian Tribes, Irrigation Districts, etc. And we had to make sure that there was enough water for everyone.
Little side note. Down by Yuma on the CA side there's a Lake called Mittrey Lake. Its only purpose is to store water when the inflow to Mexico is higher than the treaty calls for, and release water into Mexico when the River Flow is down. That way we don't give them one drop more than they're entitled to, except in major flood conditions.
Glen Canyon was dammed and Lake Powell formed for one purpose and one purpose only. And the Lake has been doing it's job beautifully over the last few years. That is, to be a back-up water source in the event of long lasting drought, to ensure that the River can supply all the contracts and treaties.
Now that we've had one really good year, where the in-flow into the system is about 150% of normal, Lake Powell will begin to be replenished. We're not out of the woods, water wise, right now, and the drought isn't technically over, but the long term prognosis for normal or higher than normal run-off is good for the next few years.
If not for Lake Powell, there's no way that everyone would get the water they'd been promised (and are legally entitled to receive). Another year or 2 of decent snowfall in the Rockies, and we'll be back near 100% capacity.
It wasn't awfully long ago, (1983 to be exact) that all the dams were in danger of being breached and the Lakes overflowing. All because of a record snowfall and some poor planning on BORs behalf. Coincidently, that was the end of the 20 year period planned to fill Lake Powell after its completion in 1963.
No matter what the Rainbow People, Environazis, and Ecoterrorists say, Lake Powell isn't going anywhere. Except up in level.
In the meantime, I gotta go move the front lawn sprinkler. It's a bitch keeping a green yard in the middle of the freakin' desert.
Peace-Out, Yo!

[NuckinFutz]

I think the author of this article has a drought of brain cells in his head. Granted consumption is up, but snowpacks have been down for several years and that is why Powell dropped so rapidly. What this author needs to realize is simple, we need more dams for water shortage years like we have been going through. If consumption is up and the lakes are going down one could only assume it is time for more storage resovoirs. If the author would only look at all of Utah, Wyoming and Colorado's lake capacities and current volume he would see clearly all lakes, not just the Colorado River drainage has suffered. I live upstream from Powell on the Green River and can see daily what the river flow is before Powell and finally this year I can smile. I say we just find enough water somewhere to drown this POS!

[PowellScooter]

What a fockin joke....These freaks stir up shizz just to keep people from coming here in the summer... :devil:

[SmokinLowriderSS]

'course, each one of us is technically an "environmentalist, because none of us want to see anything truly bad happen to this really nice chunk of rock whizzing through space. The "environmentalist" bunch though .... really "annoy" me (just didn't want to say "pi$$-off"). The only thing most of them REALLY want to do is set you and I back about 10,000 years. If you dig arround, you will find that we are on the brink of a huge ecological disaster, brought on by ............................................. the FLUSH TOILET!It's gonna be the end of the world.
I'd like to just take all these fools down to some S-Amer. rain forest (they ought to LOVE that location), and just turn them loose. Let them save the world from there, hugged trees, dry composting toilets, and all. No evil guns, no formaldehyde-filled carpeting, no fume emitting cars/boats/bikes, no antivenins, no hospitals, no cops or firemen (and none of those evil soldiers with horrible guns to protect them from bad things/people). We'll see how long they STAY there, without Starbucks or Ben & Jerry's.

[DEEZ NUTTS]

What a fockin joke....These freaks stir up shizz just to keep people from coming here in the summer... :devil:
I agree with ya! So I will do my part and keep spending stupid amounts of money at the lake.

[Rexone]

from granola biting yogurt sucking environmentalist tree hugging faggots.
Not to take this off topic but have you ever considered frequenting Bench Racers forum. They are in need of some fresh material input badly down there. :D

[Wake Havasu]

1. It's the LA times
2. It's an op ed in the LA time
3. It's written by a "conservationist"
"the channel narrowed and the smooth water erupted into 6-foot-high standing waves."
Has any one ever seen clear weather 6 footers at Powell?
If so where?

[DEEZ NUTTS]

[QUOTE=Wake Havasu]
Has any one ever seen clear weather 6 footers at Powell?
?/QUOTE]
Only about 50 yards behind the tour boat, but it makes money so that is just one more reason the lake will stay.

[callbob4homes]

If you people from Cawlyfornia would just drink more beer instead of water........................................ :p

[sdpm]

As long as I've been going to Lake Powell,( 10 years) there's been a rumor that they are going to drain it.
On one hand I feel bad for the ancient indian dwellings covered up by the lake.
On the other hand, I LOVE boating there! There is no other lake like it :D
You should have never said anything about INDIAN DWELLINGS ! Some top injun will read this and say that it is there land and then build CASINOS!! :yuk:

[Sleek-Jet]

You should have never said anything about INDIAN DWELLINGS ! Some top injun will read this and say that it is there land and then build CASINOS!! :yuk:
You don't know the Navajo's very well, do you...