Lake Powell Glen Canyon Dam water launch delayed attributable to drought

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

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

The federal government on Tuesday introduced it is going to delay the discharge of water from one of many Colorado River's main reservoirs, an unprecedented action that will briefly handle declining reservoir levels fueled by the historic Western drought.

The choice will keep 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 different major reservoir.

The actions come as water ranges at both reservoirs reached their lowest ranges on file. Lake Powell's water degree is presently at an elevation of 3,523 toes. If the extent drops under 3,490 toes, 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 now not be capable to generate electricity.

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

Officials stated the actions will help save water, shield the dam's capability to supply hydropower and provide officers with extra time to figure out learn how to function the dam at decrease water ranges.

"We've got never taken this step earlier than within the Colorado Basin," assistant Inside Department secretary Tanya Trujillo instructed reporters on Tuesday. "But the situations we see right this moment, and what we see on the horizon, demand that we take immediate motion."

Federal officers last year ordered the first-ever water cuts for the Colorado River Basin, which provides water to more than 40 million individuals and a few 2.5 million acres of croplands within the West. The cuts have mostly 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 government was contemplating taking emergency motion to handle 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 short-term reductions in releases from Lake Powell be applied without triggering further water cuts in any of the states.

The megadrought within the western U.S. has fueled the driest 20 years within the region in at least 1,200 years, with conditions likely to proceed by way 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 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 have to work collectively to guard the resources we've got and the declining water supplies in the Colorado River that our communities depend on."