Lake Powell Glen Canyon Dam water release delayed resulting from drought

Water ranges are at a historic low at Lake Powell on April 5, 2022 in Web page, Arizona.

Rj Sangosti| Medianews Group | The Denver Publish through Getty Photographs

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

The decision will hold extra water in Lake Powell, the reservoir located on 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 each reservoirs reached their lowest levels on record. Lake Powell's water level is at the moment at an elevation of 3,523 ft. If the level drops under 3,490 feet, the so-called minimum power pool, the Glen Canyon Dam, which provides electrical energy for about 5.8 million prospects within the inland West, will not have the ability to generate electricity.

The delay is anticipated to guard operations on the dam for subsequent 12 months, officials mentioned during a press briefing on Tuesday, and can maintain nearly 500,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Powell. Below a separate plan, officers may also release about 500,000 acre-feet of water into Lake Powell from Flaming Gorge, a reservoir situated upstream on the Utah-Wyoming border.

Officials said the actions will help save water, shield the dam's skill to provide hydropower and provide officials with more time to figure out the best way to operate the dam at decrease water levels.

"We've by no means taken this step earlier than within the Colorado Basin," assistant Inside Department secretary Tanya Trujillo informed reporters on Tuesday. "However the circumstances we see at present, and what we see on the horizon, demand that we take prompt motion."

Federal officials final yr 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 largely affected farmers in Arizona, who use almost three-quarters of the available 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 motion to handle 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 short-term reductions in releases from Lake Powell be carried out with out triggering additional water cuts in any of the states.

The megadrought in the western U.S. has fueled the driest two decades within the area in at the very least 1,200 years, with conditions likely to continue through 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 we've got to take responsible motion to respond," Trujillo mentioned. "We all have to work together to protect the resources we've got and the declining water provides within the Colorado River that our communities rely on."