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

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

Rj Sangosti| Medianews Group | The Denver Publish through Getty Photographs

The federal government on Tuesday introduced it would delay the discharge of water from one of many Colorado River's major reservoirs, an unprecedented motion that may temporarily address declining reservoir ranges fueled by the historic Western drought.

The decision will preserve 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 different primary reservoir.

The actions come as water levels at both reservoirs reached their lowest ranges on file. Lake Powell's water stage is currently at an elevation of three,523 toes. If the level drops below 3,490 toes, the so-called minimum energy pool, the Glen Canyon Dam, which provides electricity for about 5.8 million customers within the inland West, will no longer have the ability to generate electricity.

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

Officers mentioned the actions will help save water, shield the dam's means to produce hydropower and provide officers with more time to determine how one can operate the dam at decrease water levels.

"We now have never taken this step before within the Colorado Basin," assistant Interior Department secretary Tanya Trujillo instructed reporters on Tuesday. "But the circumstances we see in the present day, and what we see on the horizon, demand that we take prompt motion."

Federal officials last 12 months ordered the first-ever water cuts for the Colorado River Basin, which supplies water to greater than 40 million individuals and a few 2.5 million acres of croplands in the West. The cuts have principally affected farmers in Arizona, who use nearly three-quarters of the available water supply to irrigate their crops.

In April, federal water managers warned the seven states that draw from the Colorado River that the government was considering taking emergency motion to deal with 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 non permanent reductions in releases from Lake Powell be implemented without triggering additional water cuts in any of the states.

The megadrought within the western U.S. has fueled the driest 20 years in the area in at least 1,200 years, with circumstances likely to proceed 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 changing, our actions are responsible for that, and we now have to take responsible action to reply," Trujillo stated. "We all must work together to protect the resources we now have and the declining water provides in the Colorado River that our communities depend on."