efaardvark

So now we here in the southwest US are having to choose between water or electricity.  Over in Utah they said they're going to be stopping the water flow out of Lake Powell because if they don't then they'll have to shut down the Glen Canyon hydro plant there as well.  Lake Powell water levels are currently at 3527ft and they have to shut down Glen Canyon at 3,490ft.  Here in S. California we get a lot of power from Lake Mead's "Hoover" dam - which is downstream from Powell on (what used to be) the Colorado river - but Mead is itself already at the 1050ft the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation says is needed to keep the generators going there and we're already past the January peak in rainfall.  (And every foot drop in water level has already meant 6MW less electricity for the grid even before we get to full stop on the turbines.)  The Hyatt power plant in northern Calif. was shut down from August to January last/this year due to low levels in Lake Oroville but at least then we still had flow on the Colorado river keeping Glen Canyon and Hoover going.  With Powell shutting its outflow gates so early this year it is only a matter of time before water and power both become hard to find around here.  It looks like they're prioritizing electricity for now but either way it seems this summer is going to be "Bad" around here.  Word of advice for anyone looking to move to S. California - or anywhere in the US southwest really... don't.  At this rate we're going to wind up like Venezuela.