Lake Powell Glen Canyon Dam water launch delayed due to 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 Publish by way of Getty Images

The federal government 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 levels fueled by the historic Western drought.

The decision 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 main reservoir.

The actions come as water ranges at both reservoirs reached their lowest ranges on record. Lake Powell's water degree is at present at an elevation of three,523 toes. If the extent drops beneath 3,490 toes, the so-called minimal energy pool, the Glen Canyon Dam, which supplies electrical energy for about 5.8 million prospects in the inland West, will no longer be capable to generate electrical energy.

The delay is predicted to protect operations at the dam for subsequent 12 months, officials said during a press briefing on Tuesday, and will keep practically 500,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Powell. Beneath a separate plan, officers will also launch about 500,000 acre-feet of water into Lake Powell from Flaming Gorge, a reservoir situated upstream on the Utah-Wyoming border.

Officials mentioned the actions will help save water, shield the dam's capacity to supply hydropower and supply officials with more time to determine find out how to operate the dam at lower water levels.

"Now we have by no means taken this step before in the Colorado Basin," assistant Inside Department secretary Tanya Trujillo instructed reporters on Tuesday. "But the conditions we see as we speak, and what we see on the horizon, demand that we take immediate motion."

Federal officials 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 in the West. The cuts have principally affected farmers in Arizona, who use practically three-quarters of the accessible 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 considering taking emergency motion to handle declining water ranges 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 implemented without triggering additional water cuts in any of the states.

The megadrought in the western U.S. has fueled the driest 20 years in the area in at the very least 1,200 years, with conditions more likely to proceed through 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 liable for that, and we have to take responsible action to reply," Trujillo mentioned. "All of us have to work together to guard the assets we now have and the declining water provides in the Colorado River that our communities rely on."