Arizona to endure another hot, dry spring as droughts persist | Arizona and Regional News

As part of the 2019 Drought Contingency Plan, the Bureau of Reclamation twice took actions to help prop up Lake Powell, releasing water from two upstream reservoirs and temporarily reducing monthly releases from Glen Canyon Dam until April.

The bureau said it would not be taking further action for now “because the spring runoff will resolve the deficit in the short term,” said Wayne Pullan, the director of the Upper Colorado Basin Region, in a prepared statement.

But Buschatzke does not share that optimism.

“We’ve been monitoring the climatic conditions for many years in relation to both what’s occurring inside the state of Arizona, but also with the major reservoirs Lake Powell, Lake Mead, and what was happening in the upper basin watershed for” those lakes, he said. “And it has been a downward trend in terms of runoff in the Colorado River.”

While it does not plan more action now, the bureau projects that Lake Powell will dip again later this year, and it has a Drought Response Operations Plan in the works to help keep water at a level to keep Glen Canyon Dam generators functioning, if necessary .

Although the bureau has been able to provide short-term solutions, Sarah Porter, director of the Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University’s Morrison Institute, argues that significantly more must be done to combat the shortages caused by “22 years of drought. ”