Lake Powell Glen Canyon Dam water release 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 Post by way of Getty Photographs

The federal government on Tuesday announced it should delay the discharge of water from one of the Colorado River's major reservoirs, an unprecedented action that will temporarily deal with declining reservoir ranges fueled by the historic Western drought.

The decision will hold more water in Lake Powell, the reservoir located at 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 ranges at each reservoirs reached their lowest levels on record. Lake Powell's water stage is presently at an elevation of three,523 ft. If the level drops beneath 3,490 feet, the so-called minimum energy pool, the Glen Canyon Dam, which provides electrical energy for about 5.8 million prospects within the inland West, will no longer be capable of generate electricity.

The delay is anticipated to protect operations on the dam for next 12 months, officers mentioned during a press briefing on Tuesday, and can hold practically 500,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Powell. Beneath a separate plan, officers may even launch about 500,000 acre-feet of water into Lake Powell from Flaming Gorge, a reservoir located upstream at the Utah-Wyoming border.

Officials stated the actions will assist save water, protect the dam's ability to provide hydropower and provide officers with more time to determine easy methods to operate the dam at lower water levels.

"We've got never taken this step before within the Colorado Basin," assistant Inside Division secretary Tanya Trujillo advised reporters on Tuesday. "But the situations we see at this time, and what we see on the horizon, demand that we take immediate motion."

Federal officials last year ordered the first-ever water cuts for the Colorado River Basin, which supplies water to greater than 40 million individuals and some 2.5 million acres of croplands in the West. The cuts have principally affected farmers in Arizona, who use practically three-quarters of the accessible 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 action to deal with declining water ranges at Lake Powell.

Later that month, representatives from the states despatched a letter to the Inside 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 within the western U.S. has fueled the driest two decades in the area in a minimum of 1,200 years, with situations prone 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 local weather is changing, our actions are liable for that, and we've to take responsible action to reply," Trujillo mentioned. "All of us must work collectively to protect the resources we have and the declining water provides within the Colorado River that our communities rely on."