Lake Powell Glen Canyon Dam water launch delayed due to drought

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

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

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

The choice will hold extra water in Lake Powell, the reservoir positioned on the Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona, as a substitute of releasing it downstream to Lake Mead, the river's different major reservoir.

The actions come as water ranges at both reservoirs reached their lowest ranges on file. Lake Powell's water level is presently at an elevation of three,523 ft. If the level drops beneath 3,490 toes, the so-called minimal power pool, the Glen Canyon Dam, which provides electricity for about 5.8 million prospects in the inland West, will not have the ability to generate electricity.

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

Officers stated the actions will help save water, shield the dam's capability to provide hydropower and provide officials with more time to determine the right way to operate the dam at lower water ranges.

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

Federal officers final year 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 out there 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 contemplating taking emergency action to address declining water ranges at Lake Powell.

Later that month, representatives from the states despatched a letter to the Inside agreeing with the proposal and requesting that momentary reductions in releases from Lake Powell be carried out without triggering further water cuts in any of the states.

The megadrought within the western U.S. has fueled the driest twenty years in the area in at the very least 1,200 years, with situations likely to continue 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 climate is changing, our actions are accountable for that, and now we have to take responsible motion to reply," Trujillo stated. "All of us must work collectively to protect the resources we have and the declining water provides in the Colorado River that our communities rely on."