"Hoover Doom:" Arizona Utilities Brace for Diminished Hydropower as Colorado River Dams Face Critical Shortfalls

"Hoover Doom:" Arizona utilities brace for diminished hydropower as Colorado River dams face critical shortfalls

This story was produced by Circle of Blue, in partnership with The Water Desk at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Center for Environmental Journalism. In late May, as the outside temperature approached 100 degrees, Arizona’s top water policy officials gathered in an air-conditioned Phoenix conference room. Their purpose that day was to decide whether the state should extend a longstanding drought emergency declaration. The standard indicator…

Solar growth cushions Colorado River hydropower declines

Lakes Mead and Powell, the basin’s two largest reservoirs, are approaching critical levels in which hydropower from their dams (Hoover and Glen Canyon, respectively) would be severely curtailed or altogether cease.