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

Water ranges are at a historic low at Lake Powell on April 5, 2022 in Web page, Arizona.

Rj Sangosti| Medianews Group | The Denver Submit via Getty Photos

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

The decision will maintain 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 levels on record. Lake Powell's water degree is at the moment at an elevation of three,523 feet. If the level drops below 3,490 feet, the so-called minimal energy pool, the Glen Canyon Dam, which supplies electrical energy for about 5.8 million customers within the inland West, will now not be capable of generate electrical energy.

The delay is predicted to protect operations at the dam for next 12 months, officials mentioned throughout a press briefing on Tuesday, and can preserve practically 500,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Powell. Underneath a separate plan, officials may also launch about 500,000 acre-feet of water into Lake Powell from Flaming Gorge, a reservoir positioned upstream on the Utah-Wyoming border.

Officers stated the actions will help save water, protect the dam's potential to provide hydropower and provide officials with extra time to determine how you can operate the dam at decrease water levels.

"We now have by no means taken this step before in the Colorado Basin," assistant Interior Department secretary Tanya Trujillo told reporters on Tuesday. "But the conditions we see at present, and what we see on the horizon, demand that we take prompt action."

Federal officers last yr ordered the first-ever water cuts for the Colorado River Basin, which supplies water to greater than 40 million people and some 2.5 million acres of croplands within the West. The cuts have largely 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 government was contemplating taking emergency action to address 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 without 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 at least 1,200 years, with situations more likely to continue by 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 responsible for that, and we've got to take responsible motion to respond," Trujillo mentioned. "All of us need to work together to guard the sources we now have and the declining water supplies in the Colorado River that our communities depend on."