Why Glen Canyon Dam Should Not Exist

Lake Powell just hit its lowest level since it first filled. Glen Canyon Dam holds back the Colorado River, the water supply of about 40 million people, and the lake now sits about 41 feet above a line, 3,490 feet above sea level, where the dam stops making power. Below it, every drop has to leave through four steel pipes that Reclamation says were never designed for routine use. In 1965, the last time the lake sat on that line, the concrete below the dam "sank from sight." This is the story of that line: the 1922 deal that built the dam on a wet-year river, the canyon traded for it, the plywood that held the spillways in 1983, and the new rules written in 2026 to keep the lake above it. Chapters 0:00 Sank from sight 1:05 The line at 3,490 feet 2:24 Four pipes 5:02 Below the line 6:40 1922: a deal built on wet years 7:53 The trade: Glen Canyon for Echo Park 9:31 1983: too much water 11:23 The long dry 13:19 The slow leaks 14:51 Fill Mead First 16:05 The new rules 17:42 41 feet above the line Sources • Bureau of Reclamation: Glen Canyon Dam history and technical pages; Technical Memorandum on river outlet works interim operating limits (2024); 24-Month Study (October 2026); Lake Powell and Lake Mead daily elevation data; news releases 4946 (2024) and 5392 (2026); PAP-526 (1983 spillway damage) • US Department of the Interior: Record of Decision, Coordinated Operations of Lake Powell and Lake Mead 2027–2036 (August 2026) • USGS: SIR 2022-5017, Lake Powell elevation-area-capacity and capacity loss since 1963; OFR 2005-1178 • Colorado River Compact (1922) • Utah State University, Center for Colorado River Studies: Fill Mead First assessment (2016); White Paper 5 (2020) • TreeFlow (University of Arizona): Colorado River at Lees Ferry flow records • National Park Service: Glen Canyon National Recreation Area visitation • NASA Earth Observatory: Lake Powell Landsat imagery • Association of State Dam Safety Officials: Glen Canyon Dam (1983) case study Images: US federal government works (Bureau of Reclamation, USGS, NASA/Landsat and HLS, US Department of Energy, US Department of State, US Department of the Interior) and royalty-free stock footage. Maps from USGS 3DEP elevation, USGS NHD and US Census data. Narration is AI-voiced. Script, research and analysis are original.