“Wisdom In Patience” - The Re-Emergence Of Glen Canyon

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We’ve podcasted about the Lake Powell Pipeline, so we thought, as the drought continues and water levels continue to drop, let’s go have a look. We told our board about the idea and it turns out that board member Catherine Smith rafted the Colorado River through Glen Canyon as a teenager in 1955. We were so pleased that she insisted on coming along. We included David Petitt, a well-known photographer now painter, and of course, our producer and host Logan, his wife Angie, and our assistant producer Ben.

The level when we took our trip in May was only 1/4 full at 3523 feet – just 33 feet above the minimum power pool of 3,490 feet, or where there’s not enough water to run the power generators. Dead pool is 120 feet lower, at 3,370 feet. Because the lake dropped about 40 feet in 2021 they have been releasing 500,000 acre-feet from Flaming Gorge to delay that moment of truth.

But the big picture is that Lake Powell is really only of value to generate power, tourist economy aside. So if it drops below minimum power pool, then evaporation and rock-saturation coefficients start to play in. If preserving water is the sole priority, why expose all this surface area and let it seep into the sandstone? It starts to look like better water sense to send as much water as possible to Lake Mead. It’s an immense, critical set of decisions the water lords have to make in the face of the harshest drought in 1200 years, and due to climate change, looking like the new normal.

Now suddenly the Glen Canyon Institute — premised on draining the lake and revitalizing the river and deemed “looney” by Utah Senator Orrin Hatch — is gaining prominence, with Director Eric Balken finding himself in interviews in the New Yorker. At the end of the episode, we interview him too so he can help us make sense of our observations of both beauty and tragedy inherent in Glen Canyon’s re-emergence.

As we explored the re-emerging canyon, we also looked for Ancestral Puebloan evidence. Having found little, we reached out to Erik Stanfield, an archaeologist with Navajo Nation. You’ll his voice about halfway through the episode. 

Our trip begins with a long walk down temporary ramps as Bullfrog Marina continues to have to move deeper and deeper into the canyon as water vanishes.