Lake Powell Glen Canyon Dam water launch delayed resulting from drought

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

Rj Sangosti| Medianews Group | The Denver Post by way of Getty Images

The federal authorities on Tuesday introduced it can delay the release of water from one of many Colorado River's main reservoirs, an unprecedented action that can quickly address declining reservoir levels fueled by the historic Western drought.

The decision will hold more water in Lake Powell, the reservoir located at 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 levels at each reservoirs reached their lowest ranges on record. Lake Powell's water level is currently at an elevation of 3,523 feet. If the extent drops below 3,490 toes, the so-called minimal energy pool, the Glen Canyon Dam, which provides electrical energy for about 5.8 million clients in the inland West, will now not be capable to generate electricity.

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

Officers said the actions will help save water, shield the dam's capacity to produce hydropower and provide officers with more time to figure out tips on how to function the dam at decrease water ranges.

"We have by no means taken this step earlier than in the Colorado Basin," assistant Interior Department secretary Tanya Trujillo informed reporters on Tuesday. "However the conditions we see in the present day, and what we see on the horizon, demand that we take immediate motion."

Federal officials last year ordered the first-ever water cuts for the Colorado River Basin, which supplies water to more than 40 million people and some 2.5 million acres of croplands within the West. The cuts have mostly affected farmers in Arizona, who use nearly 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 federal government was contemplating taking emergency motion to handle declining water levels at Lake Powell.

Later that month, representatives from the states sent 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 two decades in the region in at least 1,200 years, with situations prone to continue through 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 we have now to take accountable motion to reply," Trujillo said. "All of us must work together to guard the resources now we have and the declining water supplies in the Colorado River that our communities depend on."