Las Vegas Review-Journal: Feds to replace 3 turbines at Hoover Dam with newly released funds

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has freed up $52 million that water managers will use to replace three old turbines at Hoover Dam as forecasters expect Lake Mead levels to plunge to historic lows over the next two years.

Previously, the federal agency had said extremely low reservoir levels could cause a 40 percent reduction in hydropower — a concerning sign for utilities that rely on it throughout Nevada, California and Arizona.

Older turbines cannot generate power below 1,035 feet in elevation at the reservoir, and hydropower levels would have dropped from 1,302 megawatts to 382 megawatts, the agency said. Wide-head turbines can operate at levels as low as 950 feet in Lake Mead.

The three new, wide-head turbines could restore at least 160 megawatts of hydropower capacity, according to a news release. Record-low Lake Mead levels are coming largely due to the Bureau of Reclamation’s move to reduce flows out of Lake Powell — a decision made to ensure water can keep flowing in the face of the worst runoff season on record.

The announcement does not include a completion date for the turbines.

However, Colorado River Commission of Nevada executive director Eric Witkoski told the Las Vegas Review-Journal last month that construction on two turbines could take until October 2028, at the earliest.

Nevada’s congressional delegation, namely U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and Rep. Susie Lee, D-Nev., has long called for the release of this money through legislation. The suspended money had been earmarked for retirement benefits for Western Area Power Administration workers — a program that was funded elsewhere.

The lawmakers’ so-called Help Hoover Dam Act was later folded into a larger appropriations bill. Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo, a Republican who urged the Trump administration in December to work on giving the money out, also praised the release of the money Thursday in a statement.

“This is government efficiency — keeping energy prices from going up, protecting our natural resources, and saving taxpayers money,” Lee added in a statement. “I’m thrilled that, at long last, this funding was released today.”