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 Publish via Getty Images

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

The choice will maintain extra water in Lake Powell, the reservoir situated on the Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona, instead of releasing it downstream to Lake Mead, the river's other major reservoir.

The actions come as water ranges at each reservoirs reached their lowest ranges on report. Lake Powell's water degree is at present at an elevation of three,523 feet. If the extent drops below 3,490 feet, the so-called minimal power pool, the Glen Canyon Dam, which provides electricity for about 5.8 million prospects in the inland West, will not be able to generate electrical energy.

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

Officers stated the actions will assist save water, shield the dam's means to provide hydropower and provide officers with extra time to figure out the best way to operate the dam at lower water ranges.

"We have now never taken this step earlier than within the Colorado Basin," assistant Interior Department secretary Tanya Trujillo told reporters on Tuesday. "But the situations we see in the present day, and what we see on the horizon, demand that we take immediate motion."

Federal officials last yr ordered the first-ever water cuts for the Colorado River Basin, which supplies water to more than 40 million folks and a few 2.5 million acres of croplands within the West. The cuts have principally affected farmers in Arizona, who use nearly three-quarters of the available 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 action to handle 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 temporary reductions in releases from Lake Powell be applied with out triggering additional water cuts in any of the states.

The megadrought within the western U.S. has fueled the driest twenty years within the area in at the least 1,200 years, with situations 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 climate change.

"Our climate is changing, our actions are accountable for that, and we have now to take responsible action to respond," Trujillo said. "We all need to work collectively to protect the assets we've got and the declining water provides within the Colorado River that our communities rely on."