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 Web page, Arizona.

Rj Sangosti| Medianews Group | The Denver Post via Getty Images

The federal authorities on Tuesday announced it would delay the release of water from one of the Colorado River's main reservoirs, an unprecedented action that will quickly address declining reservoir ranges fueled by the historic Western drought.

The choice will keep more 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 ranges at both reservoirs reached their lowest levels on document. Lake Powell's water level is at the moment at an elevation of 3,523 toes. If the extent drops below 3,490 toes, the so-called minimum power pool, the Glen Canyon Dam, which provides electrical energy for about 5.8 million clients in the inland West, will no longer be capable of generate electrical energy.

The delay is predicted to guard operations on the dam for subsequent 12 months, officials stated during a press briefing on Tuesday, and will preserve nearly 500,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Powell. Under a separate plan, officials may also launch about 500,000 acre-feet of water into Lake Powell from Flaming Gorge, a reservoir located upstream on the Utah-Wyoming border.

Officers said the actions will assist save water, defend the dam's means to supply hydropower and provide officials with extra time to determine methods to function the dam at decrease water levels.

"We have now by no means taken this step before within the Colorado Basin," assistant Interior Department secretary Tanya Trujillo told reporters on Tuesday. "But the circumstances we see right now, and what we see on the horizon, demand that we take prompt motion."

Federal officers final year 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 within the West. The cuts have principally affected farmers in Arizona, who use almost 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 contemplating taking emergency motion to deal with 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 implemented without triggering further water cuts in any of the states.

The megadrought in the western U.S. has fueled the driest twenty years in the region in not less than 1,200 years, with circumstances prone to continue by 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 changing, our actions are accountable for that, and now we have to take responsible motion to reply," Trujillo mentioned. "We all must work together to guard the resources we've got and the declining water provides within the Colorado River that our communities rely on."