Lake Powell Glen Canyon Dam water launch delayed because of drought

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

Rj Sangosti| Medianews Group | The Denver Publish via Getty Photos

The federal government on Tuesday introduced it will delay the release of water from one of many Colorado River's main reservoirs, an unprecedented action that can briefly tackle declining reservoir ranges fueled by the historic Western drought.

The choice will maintain extra water in Lake Powell, the reservoir positioned 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 both reservoirs reached their lowest levels on report. Lake Powell's water degree is currently at an elevation of three,523 toes. If the level drops beneath 3,490 toes, the so-called minimum power pool, the Glen Canyon Dam, which provides electricity for about 5.8 million clients within the inland West, will now not be capable of generate electricity.

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

Officers stated the actions will help save water, shield the dam's capability to supply hydropower and provide officials with more time to figure out easy methods to function the dam at lower water ranges.

"We have now never taken this step earlier than in the Colorado Basin," assistant Inside Department secretary Tanya Trujillo advised reporters on Tuesday. "But the conditions we see as we speak, and what we see on the horizon, demand that we take immediate action."

Federal officials final yr 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 in the West. The cuts have mostly affected farmers in Arizona, who use nearly 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 federal government was considering taking emergency motion to address declining water levels at Lake Powell.

Later that month, representatives from the states sent a letter to the Inside agreeing with the proposal and requesting that momentary reductions in releases from Lake Powell be implemented without triggering additional water cuts in any of the states.

The megadrought within the western U.S. has fueled the driest twenty years in the region in at the 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 local weather change.

"Our local weather is changing, our actions are accountable for that, and now we have to take responsible motion to respond," Trujillo mentioned. "All of us need to work collectively to protect the resources we have now and the declining water provides within the Colorado River that our communities depend on."