Lake Powell Glen Canyon Dam water launch delayed due 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 Post via Getty Photographs

The federal authorities on Tuesday announced it can delay the release of water from one of many Colorado River's major reservoirs, an unprecedented motion that may quickly tackle declining reservoir ranges fueled by the historic Western drought.

The choice will keep more water in Lake Powell, the reservoir situated 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 levels at both reservoirs reached their lowest ranges on file. Lake Powell's water degree is at present at an elevation of three,523 toes. If the level drops below 3,490 toes, the so-called minimum power pool, the Glen Canyon Dam, which supplies electrical energy for about 5.8 million prospects within the inland West, will now not be able to generate electrical energy.

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

Officers mentioned the actions will help save water, protect the dam's capability to provide hydropower and supply officers with more time to determine the right way to operate the dam at lower water ranges.

"We've by no means taken this step earlier than within the Colorado Basin," assistant Interior Division secretary Tanya Trujillo advised reporters on Tuesday. "However the conditions we see at present, and what we see on the horizon, demand that we take immediate action."

Federal officers last year ordered the first-ever water cuts for the Colorado River Basin, which supplies water to more than 40 million folks and some 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 government was considering taking emergency motion to deal with declining water levels at Lake Powell.

Later that month, representatives from the states sent a letter to the Inside agreeing with the proposal and requesting that momentary reductions in releases from Lake Powell be implemented without 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 the least 1,200 years, with circumstances more likely 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 climate change.

"Our local weather is altering, our actions are answerable for that, and we've got to take responsible motion to reply," Trujillo mentioned. "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."