Jamey
Stillings

TAPPING THE COLORADO • Lake Mead & Lake Powell, 2021-22

Taming and tapping the Colorado River has been vital to the development of the American Southwest. Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming depend on the river for their water supply, hydropower production, recreation, and fish and wildlife habitat. Both within and outside the river basin, over forty million people use the river's resources. Its waters irrigate 5.5 million acres of agricultural land.

Hoover Dam (completed 1936) and Glen Canyon Dam (completed 1966) form Lake Mead and Lake Powell, respectively. These reservoirs have a combined storage capacity of 55 million acre-feet. They are essential to storing and distributing this precious resource.

For a century, we have overestimated the Colorado River's ability to supply the demands of human development. Our ever-growing urban and agricultural expansion increases the gap. Further, the American Southwest is experiencing its worst drought in 1200 years, likely exacerbated by human-caused climate change.

In 2021-22, water levels at Lake Powell and Lake Mead dropped to record lows, between 22% and 28% of their stated capacities. If water levels continue to drop in the coming years, they may reach a catastrophic "dead pool" point, where Glen Canyon Dam and Hoover Dam can neither produce hydroelectric power nor transfer water downstream to keep the Colorado River flowing.

Tapping the Colorado uses a predominantly aerial perspective to document Lake Mead and Lake Powell at this precarious and uncertain period in the river's history.