Lake Powell Glen Canyon Dam water launch delayed attributable 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 Submit through Getty Pictures

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

The choice will maintain extra water in Lake Powell, the reservoir situated at the Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona, as a substitute of releasing it downstream to Lake Mead, the river's other major reservoir.

The actions come as water ranges at each reservoirs reached their lowest levels on record. Lake Powell's water level is presently at an elevation of 3,523 feet. If the extent drops under 3,490 feet, the so-called minimum energy pool, the Glen Canyon Dam, which supplies electricity for about 5.8 million prospects within the inland West, will no longer be capable to generate electricity.

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

Officers said the actions will assist save water, protect the dam's ability to supply hydropower and supply officers with more time to determine the right way to operate the dam at decrease water levels.

"Now we have never taken this step earlier than within the Colorado Basin," assistant Interior Department secretary Tanya Trujillo advised reporters on Tuesday. "However the situations we see in the present day, and what we see on the horizon, demand that we take prompt motion."

Federal officials last year ordered the first-ever water cuts for the Colorado River Basin, which provides water to more than 40 million individuals and a few 2.5 million acres of croplands within the West. The cuts have mostly affected farmers in Arizona, who use almost 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 deal with declining water ranges at Lake Powell.

Later that month, representatives from the states despatched a letter to the Interior agreeing with the proposal and requesting that temporary 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 two decades in the area in a minimum of 1,200 years, with circumstances prone to proceed 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 local weather is changing, our actions are chargeable for that, and we have now to take responsible motion to respond," Trujillo stated. "We all have to work together to protect the assets we have and the declining water supplies within the Colorado River that our communities depend on."