A dramatic solution on how to fill Lake Mead is gaining popularity, and now a Clark County commissioner has backed the proposal.
Lake Mead in Nevada and Arizona and Lake Powell in Utah and Arizona have suffered from a regional drought for years, and excessive water usage is slowly depleting the Colorado River faster than natural weather patterns can fill it. An above-average snowfall and excessive precipitation in the spring have bolstered the water levels at Lake Powell and Lake Mead, but many officials believe that the reservoirs will never return to full capacity.
Drought and excessive water use have severely impacted water levels in the Colorado River, which has lost more than 10 trillion gallons of water over 21 years. The dwindling water supply is impacting the efficiency of hydropower at the Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona and creating drought issues downstream at Lake Mead.
The issue has pushed some organizations to pursue a solution called Fill Mead First, which would save Lake Mead by draining Lake Powell, and the idea recently gained steam when the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation accepted public comments on the future of the Colorado River.
The idea was originally proposed by the Glen Canyon Institute, which has urged the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to construct tunnels for the Colorado River to completely bypass the Glen Canyon dam—therefore eliminating Lake Powell. The Glen Canyon Institute is a nonprofit dedicated to restoring Glen Canyon.
Thousands of comments about potential solutions have since poured into the Bureau of Reclamation. The Fill Mead First proposal—draining Lake Powell to fill Lake Mead by allowing the Colorado River to bypass the Glen Canyon Dam—united nine organizations and gained the support of Clark County Commissioner Tick Segerblom, who signed the document on behalf of the Las Vegas Water Defender, according to a report by Fox 5 Vegas.
Segerblom said at first that "crazy environmentalists" were the ones advocating for the proposal, but it is now gaining popularity among business owners.
"Obviously, they have an interest in having water. When you finally look at the basis for the dam and the lake, we realize that it never should have been built," Segerblom said. "If we get rid of it, that's going to give us more water in the bottom states."
Newsweek reached out to Segerblom and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation via email for comment.
Glen Canyon Institute Executive Director Eric Balken previously told Newsweek that the Glen Canyon Dam, which began construction in 1956 and then formed Lake Powell in 1963, was one of the most "destructive and environmentally impactful dams ever built in the U.S."
"The environmental impacts of Glen Canyon Dam are massive," Balken said, citing four fish species that have become endangered since the dam's construction. "We are now in a place where there isn't enough water in the system to keep Lake Powell and Lake Mead full. If you can't fill both and one of them is inundating a canyon that should have been a national park, why not fill Mead first and give the canyon a chance at restoration?"
When the Glen Canyon Institute presented the Fill Mead First proposal to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, it didn't receive a favorable response.
"They basically said they're not going to look at this," Balken said.
The bureau isn't the only organization with trepidation about the proposal. Blue Ribbon Coalition and others also oppose the Fill Mead First proposal, Fox 5 Vegas reported.
"We oppose any plan to drain Lake Powell. Having two very large reservoirs helps the Bureau of Reclamation stabilize the system. Just for the sheer purpose of water availability, having both reservoirs is better," Executive Director Ben Burr said.
