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 by way of Getty Pictures

The federal government on Tuesday introduced it would delay the discharge of water from one of the Colorado River's major reservoirs, an unprecedented action that may temporarily address declining reservoir ranges fueled by the historic Western drought.

The decision will maintain more water in Lake Powell, the reservoir situated on the Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona, as a substitute of releasing it downstream to Lake Mead, the river's other major reservoir.

The actions come as water levels at each reservoirs reached their lowest levels on document. Lake Powell's water stage is presently at an elevation of 3,523 feet. If the level drops below 3,490 feet, the so-called minimal energy pool, the Glen Canyon Dam, which supplies electricity for about 5.8 million customers in the inland West, will no longer be able to generate electricity.

The delay is predicted to guard operations on the dam for next 12 months, officials mentioned throughout a press briefing on Tuesday, and can hold practically 500,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Powell. Under a separate plan, officials will also launch about 500,000 acre-feet of water into Lake Powell from Flaming Gorge, a reservoir situated upstream at the Utah-Wyoming border.

Officers said the actions will help save water, defend the dam's capability to produce hydropower and provide officials with extra time to figure out the best way to function the dam at lower water levels.

"We've never taken this step before within the Colorado Basin," assistant Inside Department secretary Tanya Trujillo told reporters on Tuesday. "But the circumstances we see immediately, and what we see on the horizon, demand that we take prompt motion."

Federal officers final year ordered the first-ever water cuts for the Colorado River Basin, which provides water to more than 40 million folks and some 2.5 million acres of croplands within the West. The cuts have mostly affected farmers in Arizona, who use practically three-quarters of the available 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 action to address declining water ranges at Lake Powell.

Later that month, representatives from the states despatched a letter to the Interior agreeing with the proposal and requesting that temporary reductions in releases from Lake Powell be applied with out triggering additional 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 least 1,200 years, with situations more likely to continue by 2022 and persist for years. Researchers have estimated that 42% of the drought's severity is attributable to human-caused climate change.

"Our climate is altering, our actions are chargeable for that, and we now have to take responsible action to reply," Trujillo said. "All of us need to work together to protect the sources we now have and the declining water provides within the Colorado River that our communities rely on."