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 Put up through Getty Photographs

The federal government on Tuesday announced it'll delay the release of water from one of the Colorado River's main reservoirs, an unprecedented action that will briefly address declining reservoir levels fueled by the historic Western drought.

The choice will maintain extra water in Lake Powell, the reservoir located at the Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona, instead of releasing it downstream to Lake Mead, the river's other major reservoir.

The actions come as water ranges at both reservoirs reached their lowest levels on file. Lake Powell's water degree is at the moment at an elevation of 3,523 feet. If the level drops under 3,490 toes, the so-called minimum energy pool, the Glen Canyon Dam, which provides electricity for about 5.8 million customers in the inland West, will now not be capable of generate electricity.

The delay is predicted to protect operations on the dam for next 12 months, officers stated throughout a press briefing on Tuesday, and will maintain almost 500,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Powell. Underneath a separate plan, officials will even release about 500,000 acre-feet of water into Lake Powell from Flaming Gorge, a reservoir located upstream at the Utah-Wyoming border.

Officers stated the actions will assist save water, protect the dam's capability to supply hydropower and supply officials with more time to determine easy methods to function the dam at decrease water levels.

"Now we have by no means taken this step before within the Colorado Basin," assistant Interior Division secretary Tanya Trujillo instructed reporters on Tuesday. "However the conditions we see as we speak, and what we see on the horizon, demand that we take prompt motion."

Federal officials last year ordered the first-ever water cuts for the Colorado River Basin, which provides 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 almost three-quarters of the accessible water supply 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 address declining water ranges 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 carried out 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 area in no less than 1,200 years, with conditions likely to proceed via 2022 and persist for years. Researchers have estimated that 42% of the drought's severity is attributable to human-caused climate change.

"Our climate is changing, our actions are liable for that, and we have to take accountable motion to reply," Trujillo mentioned. "We all must work collectively to protect the sources we now have and the declining water supplies in the Colorado River that our communities rely on."