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 Post by way of Getty Photos

The federal government on Tuesday announced it can delay the discharge of water from one of many Colorado River's major reservoirs, an unprecedented motion that can quickly address declining reservoir levels fueled by the historic Western drought.

The choice will maintain more water in Lake Powell, the reservoir situated 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 each reservoirs reached their lowest levels on document. Lake Powell's water stage is currently at an elevation of three,523 toes. If the level drops under 3,490 toes, the so-called minimum energy pool, the Glen Canyon Dam, which supplies electrical energy for about 5.8 million prospects in the inland West, will not be capable of generate electricity.

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

Officers mentioned the actions will help save water, shield the dam's capacity to provide hydropower and supply officers with extra time to determine the right way to operate the dam at decrease water ranges.

"We have by no means taken this step earlier than in the Colorado Basin," assistant Interior Division secretary Tanya Trujillo advised reporters on Tuesday. "But the situations we see in the present day, and what we see on the horizon, demand that we take immediate motion."

Federal officers final year ordered the first-ever water cuts for the Colorado River Basin, which provides water to more than 40 million folks and a few 2.5 million acres of croplands in the West. The cuts have largely affected farmers in Arizona, who use nearly three-quarters of the out there 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 contemplating taking emergency action to handle declining water levels at Lake Powell.

Later that month, representatives from the states despatched a letter to the Interior agreeing with the proposal and requesting that momentary reductions in releases from Lake Powell be carried out with out triggering additional water cuts in any of the states.

The megadrought within the western U.S. has fueled the driest twenty years in the area in at least 1,200 years, with conditions likely to continue via 2022 and persist for years. Researchers have estimated that 42% of the drought's severity is attributable to human-caused local weather change.

"Our local weather is altering, our actions are accountable for that, and now we have to take accountable action to reply," Trujillo mentioned. "We all need to work together to protect the resources now we have and the declining water supplies within the Colorado River that our communities depend on."