Lake Powell Glen Canyon Dam water launch delayed as a result of drought

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

Rj Sangosti| Medianews Group | The Denver Put up through Getty Pictures

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

The decision will maintain extra water in Lake Powell, the reservoir located on the Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona, as a substitute of releasing it downstream to Lake Mead, the river's different primary reservoir.

The actions come as water ranges at both reservoirs reached their lowest ranges on document. Lake Powell's water level is presently at an elevation of 3,523 feet. If the extent drops under 3,490 toes, the so-called minimal power pool, the Glen Canyon Dam, which provides electricity for about 5.8 million prospects within the inland West, will no longer be capable to generate electricity.

The delay is expected to guard operations at the dam for subsequent 12 months, officials mentioned during a press briefing on Tuesday, and will preserve practically 500,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Powell. Below a separate plan, officials will even release about 500,000 acre-feet of water into Lake Powell from Flaming Gorge, a reservoir located upstream on the Utah-Wyoming border.

Officials said the actions will help save water, shield the dam's means to provide hydropower and provide officers with extra time to figure out find out how to function the dam at lower water ranges.

"We have now never taken this step earlier than within the Colorado Basin," assistant Inside Department secretary Tanya Trujillo told reporters on Tuesday. "However the conditions we see today, and what we see on the horizon, demand that we take prompt motion."

Federal officials final year ordered the first-ever water cuts for the Colorado River Basin, which provides water to more than 40 million folks and a few 2.5 million acres of croplands in the West. The cuts have principally affected farmers in Arizona, who use almost three-quarters of the available 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 considering 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 temporary reductions in releases from Lake Powell be implemented with out triggering further water cuts in any of the states.

The megadrought within the western U.S. has fueled the driest twenty years within the area in not less than 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 climate is altering, our actions are chargeable for that, and we've to take accountable action to respond," Trujillo said. "We all need to work collectively to guard the resources now we have and the declining water provides in the Colorado River that our communities rely on."