As Emily Green likes to point out, low is bad when it comes to flow and water storage on the Colorado, and it’s increasingly clear that low is what we’ll get this year:
March 1, 2010 runoff forecast, Colorado Basin River Forecast Center
According to the forecast out today, flow into Lake Powell on the Upper Colorado, which is the key point on the western water system, has a median forecast of 68 percent of normal. The amount of water in storage at Lake Mead, 11.8 million acre feet, is the lowest at this time of year since 1965.
What does the level of the water in the lakes, particularly Lake Meade, have to stay above in order to keep the turbines that generate electricity (for Las Vegas and Los Angeles) running?