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 Web page, Arizona.

Rj Sangosti| Medianews Group | The Denver Submit by way of Getty Pictures

The federal government on Tuesday announced it can delay the release of water from one of the Colorado River's main reservoirs, an unprecedented motion that may temporarily deal with declining reservoir ranges fueled by the historic Western drought.

The choice will preserve more water in Lake Powell, the reservoir situated on the Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona, as an alternative of releasing it downstream to Lake Mead, the river's different major reservoir.

The actions come as water levels at each reservoirs reached their lowest levels on report. Lake Powell's water level is at present at an elevation of three,523 toes. 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 not be capable to generate electrical energy.

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

Officials said the actions will assist save water, shield the dam's skill to produce hydropower and provide officials with more time to figure out how you can function the dam at decrease water ranges.

"We now have by no means taken this step before in the Colorado Basin," assistant Interior Division secretary Tanya Trujillo advised reporters on Tuesday. "However the situations we see in the present day, and what we see on the horizon, demand that we take immediate action."

Federal officials final 12 months ordered the first-ever water cuts for the Colorado River Basin, which supplies water to more 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 obtainable water provide to irrigate their crops.

In April, federal water managers warned the seven states that draw from the Colorado River that the federal 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 Interior agreeing with the proposal and requesting that momentary reductions in releases from Lake Powell be applied without triggering additional water cuts in any of the states.

The megadrought in the western U.S. has fueled the driest 20 years within the region in at least 1,200 years, with conditions prone to continue 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 local weather is altering, our actions are liable for that, and we have to take accountable action to reply," Trujillo said. "All of us have to work together to protect the assets we've got and the declining water supplies in the Colorado River that our communities depend on."