Lake Powell Glen Canyon Dam water launch delayed due to drought

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

Rj Sangosti| Medianews Group | The Denver Post through Getty Photographs

The federal government on Tuesday announced it is going to delay the release of water from one of many Colorado River's major reservoirs, an unprecedented action that will temporarily handle declining reservoir ranges fueled by the historic Western drought.

The decision will maintain extra 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 primary reservoir.

The actions come as water ranges at each reservoirs reached their lowest ranges on document. Lake Powell's water degree is at the moment at an elevation of 3,523 ft. If the extent drops below 3,490 toes, the so-called minimum power pool, the Glen Canyon Dam, which supplies electrical energy for about 5.8 million prospects within the inland West, will not be capable of generate electricity.

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

Officers stated the actions will help save water, defend the dam's skill to supply hydropower and supply officers with more time to figure out the way to operate the dam at lower water ranges.

"We have by no means taken this step earlier than in the Colorado Basin," assistant Inside Department secretary Tanya Trujillo instructed reporters on Tuesday. "However the conditions we see at the moment, and what we see on the horizon, demand that we take prompt action."

Federal officials last year ordered the first-ever water cuts for the Colorado River Basin, which supplies water to greater than 40 million people and a few 2.5 million acres of croplands within 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 considering taking emergency action to address declining water levels at Lake Powell.

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

The megadrought in the western U.S. has fueled the driest twenty years in the region in at the very least 1,200 years, with situations likely to proceed by way 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 chargeable for that, and we've to take responsible action to respond," Trujillo mentioned. "All of us have to work collectively to guard the assets we have now and the declining water provides in the Colorado River that our communities depend on."