Lake Powell Glen Canyon Dam water launch delayed resulting from drought

Water levels are at a historic low at Lake Powell on April 5, 2022 in Page, Arizona.

Rj Sangosti| Medianews Group | The Denver Submit by way of Getty Pictures

The federal government on Tuesday announced it can delay the release of water from one of the Colorado River's major reservoirs, an unprecedented action that can temporarily handle declining reservoir ranges fueled by the historic Western drought.

The decision will keep more 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 primary reservoir.

The actions come as water levels at both reservoirs reached their lowest ranges on file. Lake Powell's water degree is currently at an elevation of three,523 toes. If the level drops beneath 3,490 ft, the so-called minimum power pool, the Glen Canyon Dam, which provides electrical energy for about 5.8 million prospects in the inland West, will not have the ability to generate electricity.

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

Officials mentioned the actions will assist save water, defend the dam's skill to produce hydropower and provide officers with extra time to figure out the right way to function the dam at lower water levels.

"We've got by no means taken this step before within the Colorado Basin," assistant Interior Department secretary Tanya Trujillo told reporters on Tuesday. "However the conditions we see at this time, 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 people and some 2.5 million acres of croplands within the West. The cuts have mostly 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 federal government was contemplating taking emergency action to address declining water ranges 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 with out triggering further water cuts in any of the states.

The megadrought in the western U.S. has fueled the driest two decades within the area in no less than 1,200 years, with circumstances likely to proceed by 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 changing, our actions are responsible for that, and now we have to take accountable motion to reply," Trujillo said. "We all need to work collectively to guard the sources we've got and the declining water supplies in the Colorado River that our communities rely on."