Apparently neither the builders of these mighty dams, nor modern engineers, have ever heard of a mill race. Guess they're too busy grinding axes, regurgitating talking points, and driving an agenda.
I only hope that the lake is entirely dry rock at 895 feet. Otherwise, the entire project has long locked some large amount of fresh water from use.
The millrace still has application for low energy demand applications whether it is mechanical energy or electrical energy. It lit the fuse of the industrial revolution but it cannot sustain a modern society of our scale. For that matter, Lake Mead operating at its full glory cannot meet this demand either. This is largely due to west coast insanity concentrated in the strip of land between the coastal mountains and the Pacific.
California political and ideological forces have been and remain the drivers for energy and water destruction. This is not an engineering issue. Engineering solutions are blocked.
Just one engineers opinions my friend….