Lake Powell Glen Canyon Dam water release delayed as a result of drought

Water ranges are at a historic low at Lake Powell on April 5, 2022 in Web page, Arizona.

Rj Sangosti| Medianews Group | The Denver Put up by way of Getty Images

The federal government on Tuesday announced it's going to delay the release of water from one of the Colorado River's main reservoirs, an unprecedented action that can briefly deal with declining reservoir levels fueled by the historic Western drought.

The decision will preserve extra water in Lake Powell, the reservoir positioned at the Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona, as a substitute of releasing it downstream to Lake Mead, the river's different primary reservoir.

The actions come as water levels at each reservoirs reached their lowest levels on record. Lake Powell's water stage is currently at an elevation of 3,523 ft. If the level drops below 3,490 toes, the so-called minimal power pool, the Glen Canyon Dam, which provides electricity for about 5.8 million prospects within the inland West, will not be capable to generate electrical energy.

The delay is anticipated to guard operations on the dam for subsequent 12 months, officers stated throughout a press briefing on Tuesday, and will maintain practically 500,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Powell. Underneath a separate plan, officers will also release about 500,000 acre-feet of water into Lake Powell from Flaming Gorge, a reservoir positioned upstream at the Utah-Wyoming border.

Officers mentioned the actions will assist save water, defend the dam's capacity to produce hydropower and provide officers with more time to figure out learn how to operate the dam at decrease water levels.

"We have by no means taken this step before within the Colorado Basin," assistant Interior Department secretary Tanya Trujillo informed reporters on Tuesday. "But the conditions we see at present, and what we see on the horizon, demand that we take immediate motion."

Federal officers last 12 months ordered the first-ever water cuts for the Colorado River Basin, which provides water to more than 40 million people and a few 2.5 million acres of croplands in the West. The cuts have principally affected farmers in Arizona, who use almost three-quarters of the obtainable water provide to irrigate their crops.

In April, federal water managers warned the seven states that draw from the Colorado River that the federal government was contemplating taking emergency action to handle declining water levels at Lake Powell.

Later that month, representatives from the states sent a letter to the Inside agreeing with the proposal and requesting that temporary reductions in releases from Lake Powell be carried out with out triggering further water cuts in any of the states.

The megadrought within the western U.S. has fueled the driest 20 years in the area in a minimum of 1,200 years, with conditions more likely to proceed by means of 2022 and persist for years. Researchers have estimated that 42% of the drought's severity is attributable to human-caused local weather change.

"Our local weather is changing, our actions are responsible for that, and we have to take accountable motion to respond," Trujillo stated. "All of us need to work collectively to protect the assets we now have and the declining water supplies in the Colorado River that our communities rely on."