There's been some brainstorm that we could send flood season excess from the Mississippi to the west, but Louisiana needs every ounce of silt. Reducing flows would harm their ever-eroding coastline as I understand it.

Another idea I heard was sending Columbia River water east of Portland (how far east I dunno) south.


But, water aside, we are at a dangerous level for loss of electricity.

30 feet
5 feet
What is lost? See at bottom


I just had a conversation with ChatGPT to get educated. Here's how it works. There are two bodies of water each with their own damn, and they are interconnected such that if you release water from Powell, you feed Mead.

POWELL
Lake Powell water goes through Glen Canyon Dam hydroelectric plant. That generates max of 1,320 MW.
The water level is 30 feet away from not being able to produce. Further, there is concern that at these critical levels, they would not even be able to release water into mead at all, regardless of the hydroelectric gain. Electricity goes to Upper + Lower Basin/WAPA: customers are primarily in:
* Arizona
* Colorado
* New Mexico
* Utah
* Wyoming
* plus some customers in Nebraska

MEAD
After water flows through Powell/Glen Canyon, it goes into Lake Mead and then passes through Hoover Dam hydroelectric plant. It produces maximum generation of 2,074 MW.
Hoover's power is handled through WAPA's Desert Southwest (DSW) region.
Its principal customers are in:
* Arizona
* Nevada
* California

Lake Mead is around 1,040 ft right now.
* At 1,035 ft, Hoover reaches a major hydropower operating threshold. That's just 5 feet.
* At that point, 12 of Hoover's 17 older turbines become unusable because of cavitation, leaving the five newer wide-head turbines. Power capacity falls dramatically from roughly 1,300 MW currently to about 382 MW.
* It does NOT stop producing electricity at 1,035 ft.
* Hoover's actual minimum power-pool elevation is about 950 ft, thanks to those newer turbines.


Normal annual generation:
Glen Canyon ~3.8 TWh/yr
Hoover ~4.2 TWh/yr
COMBINED ~8.0 TWh

The Western U.S. generates on the order of 900 TWh/year, depending on exactly which states/region you include.

So:

6.7 / 900 = 0.7%

But here's the really important distinction

That 0.7% doesn't mean the event is insignificant.

Those 6.7 TWh are cheap, dispatchable hydroelectricity, and they're concentrated in particular areas.

The impact would be disproportionately large on the federal-power customers that depend on these dams.

For example, WAPA's entire portfolio generated about 22.5 TWh in FY2023.

So if you looked at WAPA's own generation, rather than the entire Western grid:

6.7 / 22.5 = 30%

Desalination

concordtom said:

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Desalination

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This would likely be San Diego ( which has desal) giving up their water rights to Phoenix in exchange for money. Don't think they are going to pump seawater thousands of miles over elevation.

Well, water has to come from somewhere.
Right now there are few solutions on the table other than hoping it's a wet winter every other year.

We are entering multiple crises and there's just passive discussion about it.