Watergy Nexus The Complex Relationship and Looming Crisis Between Our Thirst For Water and Our Hunger for Energy
Two-Decade Hydropower Plunge at Big Colorado River Dams November 5th, 2025
Via Circle of Blue, a look at the two-decade hydropower plunge at two large Coloardo River dams:
Lakes Mead and Powell, the largest reservoirs on the Colorado River, do not just store water. Their dams, Hoover and Glen Canyon, also generate electricity.
This hydropower drives irrigation pumps and fuels industries. It keeps the lights on for customers on tribal lands, in the basin’s largest cities, and in sleepy desert towns.
But less of it is being generated these days. Hydropower output at Hoover and Glen Canyon has dropped considerably since 2000. That’s because the reservoirs have declined due to a warming climate and over-extraction.
The graphics below show these energy and water trends. The line chart displays annual hydropower generation. The background image depicts water-level changes in the reservoirs over the same time period.
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As the scarcity of water and energy continues to grow, the linkage between these two critical resources will become more defined and even more acute in the months ahead. This blog is committed to analyzing and referencing articles, reports, and interviews that can help unlock the nascent, complex and expanding linkages between water and energy -- The Watergy Nexus -- and will endeavor to provide a central clearinghouse for insightful articles and comments for all to consider.
Educated at Yale University (Bachelor of Arts - History) and Harvard (Master in Public Policy - International Development), Monty Simus has held a lifelong interest in environmental and conservation issues, primarily as they relate to freshwater scarcity, renewable energy, and national park policy. Working from a water-scarce base in Las Vegas with his wife and son, he is the founder of Water Politics, an organization dedicated to the identification and analysis of geopolitical water issues arising from the world’s growing and vast water deficits, and is also a co-founder of SmartMarkets, an eco-preneurial venture that applies web 2.0 technology and online social networking innovations to motivate energy & water conservation. He previously worked for an independent power producer in Central Asia; co-authored an article appearing in the Summer 2010 issue of the Tulane Environmental Law Journal, titled: “The Water Ethic: The Inexorable Birth Of A Certain Alienable Right”; and authored an article appearing in the inaugural issue of Johns Hopkins University's Global Water Magazine in July 2010 titled: “H2Own: The Water Ethic and an Equitable Market for the Exchange of Individual Water Efficiency Credits.”
