Lake Powell Glen Canyon Dam water launch delayed because 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 Post via Getty Pictures

The federal authorities on Tuesday announced it should delay the discharge of water from one of the Colorado River's major reservoirs, an unprecedented motion that may temporarily handle declining reservoir ranges fueled by the historic Western drought.

The decision will maintain more water in Lake Powell, the reservoir positioned 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 both reservoirs reached their lowest levels on record. Lake Powell's water stage is currently at an elevation of three,523 ft. If the extent drops under 3,490 toes, the so-called minimal energy pool, the Glen Canyon Dam, which supplies electricity for about 5.8 million prospects in the inland West, will not be able to generate electricity.

The delay is anticipated to protect operations on the dam for next 12 months, officers stated during a press briefing on Tuesday, and will keep almost 500,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Powell. Beneath a separate plan, officials will also launch about 500,000 acre-feet of water into Lake Powell from Flaming Gorge, a reservoir located upstream at the Utah-Wyoming border.

Officers stated the actions will assist save water, shield the dam's means to supply hydropower and provide officers with extra time to figure out easy methods to operate the dam at lower water levels.

"We've got never taken this step earlier than within the Colorado Basin," assistant Interior Department secretary Tanya Trujillo informed reporters on Tuesday. "But the circumstances we see as we speak, and what we see on the horizon, demand that we take immediate action."

Federal officials final year ordered the first-ever water cuts for the Colorado River Basin, which provides water to more than 40 million people and some 2.5 million acres of croplands in the West. The cuts have principally affected farmers in Arizona, who use practically three-quarters of the out there water supply to irrigate their crops.

In April, federal water managers warned the seven states that draw from the Colorado River that the government was contemplating taking emergency motion to deal with 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 short-term reductions in releases from Lake Powell be applied without triggering additional water cuts in any of the states.

The megadrought in the western U.S. has fueled the driest 20 years in the area in at the least 1,200 years, with situations prone to proceed by 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 answerable for that, and we've got to take accountable action to reply," Trujillo stated. "We all need to work collectively to guard the resources we now have and the declining water supplies within the Colorado River that our communities depend on."