Lake Powell Glen Canyon Dam water release 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 Put up through Getty Photographs

The federal authorities on Tuesday announced it'll delay the discharge of water from one of the Colorado River's major reservoirs, an unprecedented action that will temporarily handle declining reservoir ranges fueled by the historic Western drought.

The decision will hold more 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 different main reservoir.

The actions come as water levels at each reservoirs reached their lowest ranges on file. Lake Powell's water level is currently at an elevation of 3,523 feet. If the extent drops beneath 3,490 ft, the so-called minimum power pool, the Glen Canyon Dam, which supplies electrical energy for about 5.8 million clients in the inland West, will now not be capable of generate electrical energy.

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

Officials said the actions will assist save water, protect the dam's potential to supply hydropower and provide officers with extra time to figure out the best way to operate the dam at lower water ranges.

"We've by no means taken this step before within the Colorado Basin," assistant Interior Division secretary Tanya Trujillo advised reporters on Tuesday. "However the circumstances we see at present, and what we see on the horizon, demand that we take immediate action."

Federal officials last yr ordered the first-ever water cuts for the Colorado River Basin, which provides water to greater than 40 million people and a few 2.5 million acres of croplands in the West. The cuts have mostly affected farmers in Arizona, who use almost 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 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 short-term reductions in releases from Lake Powell be implemented with out triggering additional water cuts in any of the states.

The megadrought in the western U.S. has fueled the driest 20 years in the region in at the very least 1,200 years, with situations likely to continue through 2022 and persist for years. Researchers have estimated that 42% of the drought's severity is attributable to human-caused climate change.

"Our local weather is changing, our actions are answerable for that, and now we have to take responsible action to reply," Trujillo stated. "We all must work together to guard the resources we've got and the declining water provides in the Colorado River that our communities depend on."