"The US Bureau of Reclamation announced the cut Friday, from Lake Powell, because of drought conditions. While the move involving the Colorado River will be hard for people to detect at the faucet, it carries symbolic importance."
"Fourteen years of drought in the West and a revised rule book on allocating water along the Colorado River have prompted the US Bureau of Reclamation to make the deepest cut in water released from Lake Powell in the reservoir's 46-year history.
Lake Powell is second-largest engineered reservoir in the United States by capacity, bested only by Lake Mead, more than 200 miles downstream.
The bureau formally announced the cut Friday. The amount of water that the bureau will release from the lake starting Oct. 1 will be some 10 percent less than the amount released in the prior 12 months – some 7.48 million acre-feet of water during the 2014 water year, compared with 8.23 million acre-feet during the current water year, which ends Sept. 30."
Pete Spotts reports for the Christian Science Monitor August 16, 2013.
SEE ALSO:
"Feds Slash Colorado River Release to Historic Lows" (National Geographic)
"Warning Sign on the Colorado River" (Science Insider)
"Low Colorado River May Force Historic Action for Lake Powell" (Salt Lake Tribune)
