Lake Powell Glen Canyon Dam water release delayed as a result of 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 through Getty Images

The federal government on Tuesday announced it'll delay the release of water from one of the Colorado River's main reservoirs, an unprecedented motion that will briefly tackle declining reservoir ranges fueled by the historic Western drought.

The decision will maintain extra water in Lake Powell, the reservoir positioned at the Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona, instead of releasing it downstream to Lake Mead, the river's other major reservoir.

The actions come as water levels at each reservoirs reached their lowest levels on record. Lake Powell's water stage is presently at an elevation of 3,523 feet. If the level drops beneath 3,490 toes, the so-called minimum energy pool, the Glen Canyon Dam, which provides electricity for about 5.8 million prospects within the inland West, will now not be capable of generate electricity.

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

Officials said the actions will help save water, defend the dam's capacity to produce hydropower and supply officers with more time to figure out how to function the dam at decrease water levels.

"We've got never taken this step earlier than within the Colorado Basin," assistant Inside Division secretary Tanya Trujillo informed reporters on Tuesday. "However the situations we see at this time, and what we see on the horizon, demand that we take prompt motion."

Federal officers last yr ordered the first-ever water cuts for the Colorado River Basin, which provides water to more than 40 million folks and some 2.5 million acres of croplands in the West. The cuts have principally affected farmers in Arizona, who use nearly 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 address declining water ranges 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 applied without triggering further water cuts in any of the states.

The megadrought in the western U.S. has fueled the driest two decades in the region in at least 1,200 years, with circumstances prone 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 climate is changing, our actions are liable for that, and we have now to take responsible motion to reply," Trujillo said. "We all need to work together to protect the resources we have and the declining water supplies in the Colorado River that our communities rely on."