Proposal to Drain Lake Powell Emerges Amidst Western Water Crisis
The Colorado River Basin is facing a severe water shortage, with Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the nation's largest and second-largest reservoirs, reaching record low levels. Lake Powell, in particular, is just 30 feet above the minimum level required for its electrical generators. A proposal suggests draining Lake Powell as a solution to the Western water crisis. The argument for draining Lake Powell centers on its significant water loss due to evaporation and seepage in its hot, arid, and porous sandstone canyon environment. Scientists estimate that Lake Powell loses approximately 800,000 acre-feet of water annually, an amount equivalent to New Mexico's entire legal water allotment from the river basin. The reservoir does not directly supply major irrigation systems or large cities, with only Page, Arizona (population 7,500), and a few small Navajo communities relying on it. The current water policy in the American West is criticized for its anachronistic legal precedents and federal subsidies, which lead t... 
