Lake Powell Glen Canyon Dam water release delayed because 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 Post by way of Getty Photographs

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

The choice will preserve more 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 other main reservoir.

The actions come as water levels at each reservoirs reached their lowest ranges on file. Lake Powell's water stage is at present at an elevation of three,523 feet. If the level drops under 3,490 ft, the so-called minimal power pool, the Glen Canyon Dam, which supplies electrical energy for about 5.8 million clients within the inland West, will now not be capable to generate electrical energy.

The delay is anticipated to guard operations at the dam for subsequent 12 months, officials stated throughout a press briefing on Tuesday, and will maintain practically 500,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Powell. Beneath a separate plan, officials may 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 assist save water, shield the dam's potential to produce hydropower and provide officials with extra time to figure out how to function the dam at decrease water levels.

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

Federal officers final yr ordered the first-ever water cuts for the Colorado River Basin, which supplies water to greater than 40 million people 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 considering taking emergency action to handle declining water levels at Lake Powell.

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

The megadrought in the western U.S. has fueled the driest twenty years in the region in at the least 1,200 years, with circumstances likely to proceed by means of 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 have to take responsible motion to reply," Trujillo mentioned. "All of us must work collectively to guard the sources we've got and the declining water provides within the Colorado River that our communities depend on."