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 Submit via Getty Photos

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

The decision will keep extra water in Lake Powell, the reservoir situated 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 each reservoirs reached their lowest ranges on report. Lake Powell's water stage is presently at an elevation of 3,523 feet. If the extent drops under 3,490 toes, the so-called minimal power pool, the Glen Canyon Dam, which provides electricity for about 5.8 million customers within the inland West, will now not be capable of generate electrical energy.

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

Officials mentioned the actions will assist save water, defend the dam's ability to supply hydropower and provide officers with extra time to figure out how you can function the dam at lower water ranges.

"Now we have by no means taken this step earlier than within the Colorado Basin," assistant Interior Department secretary Tanya Trujillo advised reporters on Tuesday. "But the conditions we see right this moment, and what we see on the horizon, demand that we take prompt action."

Federal officers final year ordered the first-ever water cuts for the Colorado River Basin, which supplies water to greater than 40 million folks and a few 2.5 million acres of croplands within the West. The cuts have largely affected farmers in Arizona, who use nearly three-quarters of the accessible 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 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 with out triggering further water cuts in any of the states.

The megadrought within the western U.S. has fueled the driest twenty years within the region in no less than 1,200 years, with circumstances likely 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 chargeable for that, and we have to take responsible action to reply," Trujillo stated. "We all must work collectively to guard the sources we've got and the declining water provides in the Colorado River that our communities depend on."