Lake Powell Glen Canyon Dam water release delayed as a consequence of drought

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

Rj Sangosti| Medianews Group | The Denver Put up via 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 may temporarily tackle declining reservoir levels fueled by the historic Western drought.

The decision will preserve extra water in Lake Powell, the reservoir located at the Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona, instead of releasing it downstream to Lake Mead, the river's different major reservoir.

The actions come as water ranges at both reservoirs reached their lowest ranges on record. Lake Powell's water degree is presently at an elevation of three,523 ft. If the level drops under 3,490 feet, the so-called minimal energy pool, the Glen Canyon Dam, which provides electrical energy for about 5.8 million clients within the inland West, will now not be able to generate electricity.

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

Officers mentioned the actions will help save water, defend the dam's potential to provide hydropower and provide officials with more time to figure out find out how to function the dam at decrease water ranges.

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

Federal officials last yr ordered the first-ever water cuts for the Colorado River Basin, which provides water to more than 40 million people and a few 2.5 million acres of croplands in the West. The cuts have mostly affected farmers in Arizona, who use nearly 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 action to handle 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 non permanent reductions in releases from Lake Powell be implemented without triggering further water cuts in any of the states.

The megadrought in the western U.S. has fueled the driest two decades in the region in at least 1,200 years, with conditions more likely to proceed via 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 changing, our actions are accountable for that, and we now have to take accountable motion to reply," Trujillo mentioned. "We all have to work together to guard the resources we've got and the declining water supplies in the Colorado River that our communities depend on."