Lake Powell Glen Canyon Dam water launch delayed due to 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 Photographs

The federal government on Tuesday announced it is going to delay the discharge of water from one of the Colorado River's major reservoirs, an unprecedented action that can briefly tackle declining reservoir levels fueled by the historic Western drought.

The decision will keep more water in Lake Powell, the reservoir located on the Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona, as an alternative of releasing it downstream to Lake Mead, the river's other main reservoir.

The actions come as water levels at both reservoirs reached their lowest levels on document. Lake Powell's water stage is presently 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 provides electrical energy for about 5.8 million customers within the inland West, will no longer have the ability to generate electricity.

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

Officials said the actions will assist save water, defend the dam's means to produce hydropower and supply officers with extra time to determine the right way to function the dam at decrease water ranges.

"We've by no means taken this step before in the Colorado Basin," assistant Inside Department secretary Tanya Trujillo instructed reporters on Tuesday. "But the circumstances we see at this time, and what we see on the horizon, demand that we take prompt action."

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

Later that month, representatives from the states sent a letter to the Inside agreeing with the proposal and requesting that temporary reductions in releases from Lake Powell be applied without triggering further water cuts in any of the states.

The megadrought in the western U.S. has fueled the driest 20 years within the area in a minimum of 1,200 years, with situations 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 local weather is altering, our actions are responsible for that, and now we have to take responsible motion to reply," Trujillo stated. "We all must work collectively to guard the assets we've got and the declining water provides in the Colorado River that our communities rely on."