Brad Udall always lays out the hydrology and climate in an easy to understand, and often frightening, way. This YouTube video is well worth your time, particularly if you are a climate skeptic. Our political leadership needs to start paying attention to the scientists, the Colorado River Basin is a bellwether for the future. If you add energy to a system it responds and we are adding energy (heat) to the Water Cycle. As Brad has said, “Climate Change is water change.”
In the video above Katrina Grants from Reclamation explained how her agency is planning operations of Glen Canyon Dam for the next few years and emphasized that they can operate safely with just the outlet tubes, with increased maintenance activity. The planning shows the river hydrology is the primary driver of releases rather than limitations from the tube design. “We can release the water if it is there,” she said.
Last year the agency coated the tubes with Epoxy primer – applied directly to the blasted steel for corrosion protection and adhesion and Polysiloxane topcoat – a highly durable finish that provides abrasion resistance, chemical resistance, and long-term protection in a submerged environment. The coating was applied using a robotic sprayer after robotic abrasive blasting removed the old lining. Grants said that every six months one tube will need to be taken offline for a while for inspection and repair while using the other 3 tubes for releases. So, Reclamation does not believe that modifications to the dam are necessary at this time.
