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

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

Rj Sangosti| Medianews Group | The Denver Put up via Getty Photos

The federal authorities on Tuesday announced it's going to delay the discharge of water from one of many Colorado River's major reservoirs, an unprecedented action that will quickly address declining reservoir levels fueled by the historic Western drought.

The decision will keep extra water in Lake Powell, the reservoir located on the Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona, as a substitute of releasing it downstream to Lake Mead, the river's different main reservoir.

The actions come as water ranges at both reservoirs reached their lowest ranges on document. Lake Powell's water degree is currently at an elevation of 3,523 toes. If the extent drops under 3,490 feet, the so-called minimum energy pool, the Glen Canyon Dam, which supplies electricity for about 5.8 million prospects within the inland West, will no longer have the ability to generate electrical energy.

The delay is anticipated to guard operations at the dam for next 12 months, officials mentioned during a press briefing on Tuesday, and can preserve practically 500,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Powell. Under a separate plan, officials may even release about 500,000 acre-feet of water into Lake Powell from Flaming Gorge, a reservoir located upstream at the Utah-Wyoming border.

Officials mentioned the actions will help save water, protect the dam's skill to provide hydropower and supply officers with more time to figure out find out how to operate the dam at decrease water ranges.

"Now we have never taken this step before within the Colorado Basin," assistant Inside Division secretary Tanya Trujillo informed reporters on Tuesday. "However the circumstances we see as we speak, and what we see on the horizon, demand that we take immediate action."

Federal officials last yr ordered the first-ever water cuts for the Colorado River Basin, which provides water to greater than 40 million folks and some 2.5 million acres of croplands in the West. The cuts have mostly affected farmers in Arizona, who use nearly three-quarters of the out there water provide to irrigate their crops.

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

Later that month, representatives from the states despatched a letter to the Interior agreeing with the proposal and requesting that short-term reductions in releases from Lake Powell be applied with out triggering further water cuts in any of the states.

The megadrought in the western U.S. has fueled the driest twenty years within the region in at the least 1,200 years, with situations likely to continue 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 climate is changing, our actions are answerable for that, and now we have to take accountable action to reply," Trujillo said. "We all need to work collectively to protect the resources now we have and the declining water provides within the Colorado River that our communities depend on."