Lake Powell Glen Canyon Dam water release delayed because 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 Put up by way of Getty Photographs

The federal government on Tuesday announced it should delay the release of water from one of many Colorado River's major reservoirs, an unprecedented action that can temporarily tackle declining reservoir ranges fueled by the historic Western drought.

The choice will keep more water in Lake Powell, the reservoir situated at the Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona, as a substitute 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 levels on file. Lake Powell's water degree is at present at an elevation of three,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 customers in the inland West, will no longer be capable to generate electricity.

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

Officials stated the actions will assist save water, protect the dam's skill to supply hydropower and provide officers with extra time to determine operate the dam at decrease water ranges.

"We've got by no means taken this step earlier than within the Colorado Basin," assistant Interior Department secretary Tanya Trujillo told reporters on Tuesday. "However the conditions we see right this moment, and what we see on the horizon, demand that we take prompt motion."

Federal officers final 12 months ordered the first-ever water cuts for the Colorado River Basin, which supplies water to greater than 40 million individuals 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 accessible 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 deal with declining water ranges 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 with out triggering additional water cuts in any of the states.

The megadrought in the western U.S. has fueled the driest twenty years in the area in no less than 1,200 years, with situations prone to proceed by 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 altering, our actions are responsible for that, and now we have to take accountable action to reply," Trujillo said. "All of us have to work together to guard the resources we've and the declining water provides within the Colorado River that our communities depend on."