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Testimony of Fame Renaissance
Presented by
Mark Whitlock, Executive DirectorU.S. House of Representatives
Subcommittee on Water and Power and National Parks & Public Lands
Joint Oversight Hearing
Tuesday, September 23, 1997 WHY WE NEED LAKE POWELL Good day ladies and gentlemen, I appreciate the opportunity to be here today to share with
you some concerns that I have regarding the Sierra Club and Glen Canyon Institute's proposal to drain Lake Powell. As you are aware, Lake Powell is the reservoir which allows the United States to regulate the flow of
the Colorado River to Lake Mead downstream. Water stored in Lake Powell permits the Upper Basin states to meet their obligation to deliver 75 million acre-feet of water to the Lower Basin every 10 years, and to deliver
50 percent of the United States' obligation to Mexico (750,000 acre-feet a year) while continuing to meet the need for water upstream. Implementing a proposal to drain Lake Powell would almost certainly cause the Upper
Basin states to take actions which would threaten the supply of Colorado River water to California and the other Lower Basin states. If the Upper Basin states continued to meet their own growing water needs, less
water would be left in the river to flow to Lake Mead, the reservoir from which California and the other Lower Basin states' needs for Colorado River water are met. With less water flowing into Lake Mead, there would be
less of a chance that the Secretary of the Interior would continue to make surplus water available to California. While California has been and will continue to do its part to make more efficient use of the Colorado
River supplies available to it, reducing the availability of surplus water in the near future would translate into a need to spend significant amounts of money on new supplies, raising water rates. Currently, the water
rate in my community is $740 per acre-foot. I'm concerned about our water rates increasing especially when we are working so hard in our community to make the most efficient use of this resource. The First African
Methodist Episcopal Church (FAME) is one of many Community Based Organizations that has helped provide employment for local residents by distributing and installing ultra low flush toilets. The local water purveyors
provide funding for these water conservation programs and our community benefits in many ways. To date, our organization has installed over 84,000 ultra low flush toilets which translate to a savings of 68,710 acre-feet
over the next 20 years. In Southern California, Community Based Organizations have installed or distributed over 1 million ultra low flush toilets and 3 million low-flow shower heads at a cost of over $120 million. This
translates to 775,000 acre-feet saved over the life of the equipment. The population of Southern California is growing by over 210,000 people each year. By 2020 the population of Southern California is expected to be
21.5 million. Colorado River water plays an important role to support the Southern California coastal region's $475 billion economy and to provide jobs to support the growing population. The total need for water in the
Southern California coastal region is expected to grow from 3.5 million to 4.6 million acre-feet per year by that time under normal weather conditions after deducting the effect that conservation measures have on
demand. There has been much discussion recently regarding the need to change the way the Colorado River system is operated. Changing the river's management system should optimize the use of Colorado River water,
involving an overall basin-wide approach. Draining Lake Powell is not the answer. We're working hard to conserve water and be efficient in our community. But there are limits to conservation. There are 16 million
people and a huge economy in Southern California that depend on Colorado River water and Lake Powell's ability to store this water . |
