…the silt never ceased arriving in Lake Powell, the reservoir above the dam. Each day on average for the past 60 years, the equivalent of 61 supersize Mississippi River barge-loads of sand and mud have been deposited there. The total accumulation would bury the length of Manhattan to a depth of 126 feet \u2014 close to the height of a 12-story building.<\/p>\n
For years this mud was hidden beneath Lake Powell\u2019s blue waters. Now, as climate change and overuse of the Colorado have drawn the reservoir down to record lows, the silt is exposed \u2014 forming \u201c\u200cmud glaciers\u200c\u200c.\u201d And because of a gradient created when the lake level falls, the giant mud blobs are moving at a rate of 100 feet or more per day toward the dam.<\/p>\n
These advancing mud blobs pose existential threats to the water supply of the Southwest: One day they could form a constipating plug that blocks Glen Canyon, preventing the water from flowing downriver. They could also someday endanger the structural integrity of the dam.<\/p>\n
Asked about the dangers that the sediment posed, Floyd Dominy, the commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in 1963, later quipped, \u201cWe will let people in the future worry about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n In Opinion<\/p>\n Near the Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River, "advancing mud blobs pose existential threats to the water supply of the Southwest," Dale Maharidge, a professor at Columbia University\u2019s Graduate School of Journalism, writes in a guest essay. https:\/\/t.co\/ZaShKLoaxL<\/a><\/p>\n — The New York Times (@nytimes) March 20, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \n