Lake Powell Glen Canyon Dam water launch delayed attributable to 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 via Getty Pictures

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

The choice will keep extra water in Lake Powell, the reservoir located at 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 levels on record. Lake Powell's water level is currently at an elevation of three,523 ft. If the extent drops below 3,490 ft, the so-called minimum power pool, the Glen Canyon Dam, which supplies electricity for about 5.8 million prospects within the inland West, will no longer have the ability to generate electricity.

The delay is predicted to guard operations at the dam for next 12 months, officials mentioned throughout a press briefing on Tuesday, and can maintain almost 500,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Powell. Underneath a separate plan, officers may also release 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, defend the dam's potential to provide hydropower and supply officials with extra time to determine the best way to operate the dam at decrease water ranges.

"We have by no means taken this step before in the Colorado Basin," assistant Inside Department secretary Tanya Trujillo informed reporters on Tuesday. "However the circumstances we see right now, and what we see on the horizon, demand that we take immediate motion."

Federal officials final 12 months 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 within the West. The cuts have largely affected farmers in Arizona, who use almost 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 address 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 short-term reductions in releases from Lake Powell be applied with out triggering further water cuts in any of the states.

The megadrought within the western U.S. has fueled the driest 20 years in the region in at the least 1,200 years, with situations prone to proceed by way of 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 chargeable for that, and now we have to take accountable action to respond," Trujillo said. "We all must work together to protect the assets we have and the declining water supplies within the Colorado River that our communities depend on."