ponytug
Super Member
Basically, it reduces water losses due to evaporation by reducing the surface area from two reservoir surfaces to one.Who would be the ones wanting to do that? and why?
I would not characterize it as a political move, although with more than one person, I think you always have some amount of politics. It is an engineering / hydrology move in my view. The dams were built in a time of relatively wet years and low demand. Now that we know more of the hydrological history of the Western US, we now know how unusual the early 1900s were from a rainfall perspective.
By allowing the water to bypass lake Powell, less of water would be lost to evaporation, resulting in more water for the residents in the area, the ecosystem, and downstream users.
There might be an extended discussion about the wisdom of growing irrigated water intensive crops like alfalfa and cotton in deserts, but in a few decades, it will be moot as the desert air evaporates more water and increases soil salinity beyond the tolerance of the crops. Still, there are better places to grow these crops, and more profitable areas, if the actual water cost, rather than the state and federally subsidized cost of water prevailed.
I'm all for farming the right crops in the right place, like bees on goldenrod in Missouri or the driftless region of Wisconsin.
Las Vegas recycles an enormous fraction of its water. 40% of its water is used indoors, and 99% of that is recycled in a variety of ways. Las Vegas residents use less than 200gpd (GPCD), one of the absolute lowest in the US. It has been ratcheting up the pressure to reduce all outdoor uses of water that isn't rain fed.
Where Your Water Comes From
Colorado River water and local groundwater are the two primary supplies used to meet our community's current water resource needs.

All the best,
Peter