Despite outstanding water year, Lake Powell still struggles

We've reported extensively on mountain snowpack over the most populated areas of Utah, but what about the Colorado River that empties into Lake Powell and flows to the Pacific in Mexico? Fox 13 News Anchor Max Roth takes an in-depth look tonight at how the Southwest's most important river system holds up when we talk about Colorado River

water

in Utah, we talk about a vast system that flows through mountains in Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, even a little bit of New Mexico, and we're talking about the

water

that most Utahns depend on. Somewhere, many don't realize that Lake Powell's water levels are Colorado's upper benchmark and the

lake

is lower than ever at 3,521 feet in elevation, 31 feet higher and the Glen Canyon Dam may stop. generate energy.

Utah's snowpack is excellent overall, 160 percent of the average snow water equivalent for this time of

year

, but Utah's largest contribution to the Colorado system flows from the Uinta Mountains and are in a healthy 148 percent of average right now, but we Utahns pump out a lot of that water before it gets close. At Lake Powell we get 23 percent of our water from water that would have gone to the Colorado and there are 60 of us who get it, including residents of Utah and Salt Lake counties. That happens because each of those little black lines on the map here are dams or water diversions from the Colorado system, the U.S.

Geological Survey drew this map showing the area that flows into the Colorado. Wyoming's wind rivers provide plenty of water, but that region has not had as intense a winter as Utah, where watersheds remain just beyond the In some cases, the median of the Colorado Rocky Mountains is the headwaters and the largest source of water for the Colorado. The Yampa and Blanco Rivers flow from northern Colorado to the Green River in Utah. They sit at a healthy 136 percent of the median. The Colorado River itself flows from the Rocky Mountains. National Park with watersheds near their headwaters containing 122 percent of their median, the smallest systems, the Dolores and San Juan Rivers in southern Colorado, hold 140 percent of their median snow water equivalent, making Which is all positive in terms of a healthy water

year

, but the water is feeding Utah's largest reservoir, which supports 40 million people.

Downstream isn't bursting at the seams like the waters of the major basins where Utahns pay more attention to Lake Pal. He may see a boost, but not enough to change his fortunes in a stint at the Max Roth studio. Fox 13 News