Snowpack delivers on promise

Since January, weather forecasters and water managers have been predicting a promising year on the Colorado River.

Now the bright outlook has some numbers attached to it.

According to the latest projections from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the above-average snowpack along the western slope of the Rocky Mountains could mean an extra 653,000 acre-feet of water for Lake Mead.

As the snowpack melts in the coming months, the flow of the Colorado is projected to swell to 122 percent of normal, hastening the recovery of Lake Powell.

Bureau officials say they now expect Powell's water level to rise more than 40 feet by year's end, allowing the reservoir on the Utah-Arizona border to send more water than usual downstream to Mead.

The increase will mark the first time in seven years that Lake Powell has released more than the standard 8.23 million acre-feet of water through Glen Canyon Dam and into the Grand Canyon.

It also marks the first use of new federal guidelines adopted in December to better coordinate the operation of lakes Mead and Powell.

Though the additional water is more than double Nevada's annual share of the Colorado River, it won't be enough to keep Lake Mead water levels from dropping over the next eight months. That's because 8.9 million acre-feet of water will flow into the lake this year and 9.5 million acre-feet will flow out to supply Nevada, California, Arizona and Mexico.

The Las Vegas Valley pulls 90 percent of its water from the reservoir, but Nevada's annual share of the Colorado is the smallest by far among the seven Western states that draw from the river.

Instead of dropping 11 feet by the end of the year, Lake Mead now is projected to fall about 5 feet, thereby reaching its lowest level since May 1965.

"We're certainly glad to see it's going to be better than projected," said Scott Huntley, spokesman for the Southern Nevada Water Authority. "Obviously, that doesn't mean the drought is over. It's taken the year off."

The water level at Lake Mead has plunged nearly 95 feet since 2000.

Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350.