Lake Powell Glen Canyon Dam water launch delayed on account of drought

Water levels 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 Images

The federal government on Tuesday introduced it's going to delay the discharge of water from one of many Colorado River's main reservoirs, an unprecedented motion that will briefly tackle declining reservoir ranges fueled by the historic Western drought.

The choice will hold more water in Lake Powell, the reservoir situated 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 ranges on report. Lake Powell's water stage is at the moment at an elevation of three,523 ft. If the level drops under 3,490 toes, the so-called minimal power pool, the Glen Canyon Dam, which supplies electrical energy for about 5.8 million clients in the inland West, will no longer be capable of generate electricity.

The delay is predicted to protect operations at the dam for subsequent 12 months, officials stated throughout a press briefing on Tuesday, and will maintain almost 500,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Powell. Beneath a separate plan, officers can even release about 500,000 acre-feet of water into Lake Powell from Flaming Gorge, a reservoir located upstream on the Utah-Wyoming border.

Officers stated the actions will assist save water, defend the dam's capability to supply hydropower and supply officers with extra time to figure out the best way to function the dam at lower water levels.

"We now have by no means taken this step earlier than in the Colorado Basin," assistant Interior Department secretary Tanya Trujillo told reporters on Tuesday. "But the circumstances we see today, and what we see on the horizon, demand that we take prompt motion."

Federal officials last yr ordered the first-ever water cuts for the Colorado River Basin, which supplies water to greater than 40 million individuals and a few 2.5 million acres of croplands in the West. The cuts have largely affected farmers in Arizona, who use nearly 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 motion to address 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 carried out without triggering additional water cuts in any of the states.

The megadrought within the western U.S. has fueled the driest 20 years within the region in a minimum of 1,200 years, with situations likely to proceed through 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 liable for that, and we have now to take responsible motion to respond," Trujillo stated. "We all need to work together to guard the sources we've and the declining water supplies in the Colorado River that our communities rely on."