Lake Powell Glen Canyon Dam water launch delayed resulting from drought

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

Rj Sangosti| Medianews Group | The Denver Post by way of Getty Photographs

The federal government on Tuesday announced it would delay the release of water from one of the Colorado River's main reservoirs, an unprecedented motion that can briefly handle declining reservoir levels fueled by the historic Western drought.

The choice will preserve extra water in Lake Powell, the reservoir located at the Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona, as a substitute of releasing it downstream to Lake Mead, the river's other primary reservoir.

The actions come as water levels at both reservoirs reached their lowest ranges on report. Lake Powell's water stage is presently at an elevation of 3,523 ft. If the extent drops beneath 3,490 feet, the so-called minimum energy pool, the Glen Canyon Dam, which provides electrical energy for about 5.8 million clients within the inland West, will no longer be capable of generate electrical energy.

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

Officials said the actions will help save water, defend the dam's capacity to provide hydropower and supply officials with extra time to figure out tips on how to operate the dam at decrease water levels.

"Now we have by no means taken this step earlier than within the Colorado Basin," assistant Inside Division secretary Tanya Trujillo told reporters on Tuesday. "However the circumstances we see at this time, and what we see on the horizon, demand that we take immediate action."

Federal officers final 12 months ordered the first-ever water cuts for the Colorado River Basin, which provides water to more than 40 million folks and a few 2.5 million acres of croplands within the West. The cuts have mostly affected farmers in Arizona, who use practically three-quarters of the out there 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 contemplating taking emergency action to deal with declining water levels at Lake Powell.

Later that month, representatives from the states sent a letter to the Interior agreeing with the proposal and requesting that non permanent reductions in releases from Lake Powell be applied with out triggering additional water cuts in any of the states.

The megadrought in the western U.S. has fueled the driest two decades within the region in not less than 1,200 years, with conditions more likely to proceed by means 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 climate is altering, our actions are chargeable for that, and we have now to take accountable motion to reply," Trujillo mentioned. "All of us have to work collectively to protect the resources we now have and the declining water supplies within the Colorado River that our communities rely on."