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 Put up via Getty Pictures

The federal authorities on Tuesday introduced it would delay the discharge of water from one of many Colorado River's major reservoirs, an unprecedented action that can temporarily handle declining reservoir levels fueled by the historic Western drought.

The choice will keep extra water in Lake Powell, the reservoir situated on the Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona, as an alternative of releasing it downstream to Lake Mead, the river's other main reservoir.

The actions come as water ranges at both reservoirs reached their lowest ranges on document. Lake Powell's water level is presently at an elevation of three,523 feet. If the level drops below 3,490 ft, the so-called minimum energy pool, the Glen Canyon Dam, which supplies electricity for about 5.8 million clients within the inland West, will now not be capable of generate electricity.

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

Officials mentioned the actions will assist save water, protect the dam's ability to supply hydropower and provide officers with extra time to determine operate the dam at decrease water levels.

"We now have never taken this step earlier than within the Colorado Basin," assistant Interior Division secretary Tanya Trujillo advised reporters on Tuesday. "However the situations we see immediately, and what we see on the horizon, demand that we take immediate action."

Federal officials final yr ordered the first-ever water cuts for the Colorado River Basin, which provides water to greater than 40 million people and a few 2.5 million acres of croplands within the West. The cuts have principally affected farmers in Arizona, who use almost three-quarters of the obtainable 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 handle declining water ranges 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 applied with out triggering additional water cuts in any of the states.

The megadrought within the western U.S. has fueled the driest two decades in the region in at 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 climate change.

"Our climate is altering, our actions are accountable for that, and we've got to take accountable action to reply," Trujillo mentioned. "We all have to work collectively to guard the sources we now have and the declining water supplies within the Colorado River that our communities depend on."