Lake Powell Glen Canyon Dam water release delayed attributable 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 Submit through Getty Images

The federal government on Tuesday introduced it should delay the discharge of water from one of the Colorado River's main reservoirs, an unprecedented action that may temporarily tackle declining reservoir ranges fueled by the historic Western drought.

The decision will maintain more water in Lake Powell, the reservoir situated on the Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona, as an alternative of releasing it downstream to Lake Mead, the river's different main reservoir.

The actions come as water levels at both reservoirs reached their lowest levels on document. Lake Powell's water stage is at present at an elevation of 3,523 feet. If the extent drops under 3,490 toes, the so-called minimal power pool, the Glen Canyon Dam, which supplies electricity for about 5.8 million clients in the inland West, will no longer be capable to generate electricity.

The delay is predicted to protect operations at the dam for subsequent 12 months, officials said during a press briefing on Tuesday, and can preserve nearly 500,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Powell. Underneath a separate plan, officers may even release about 500,000 acre-feet of water into Lake Powell from Flaming Gorge, a reservoir located upstream at the Utah-Wyoming border.

Officials said the actions will help save water, shield the dam's means to produce hydropower and supply officers with extra time to figure out methods to function the dam at decrease water ranges.

"We have never taken this step before within the Colorado Basin," assistant Inside Department secretary Tanya Trujillo told reporters on Tuesday. "However the situations we see at the moment, and what we see on the horizon, demand that we take immediate action."

Federal officers final year ordered the first-ever water cuts for the Colorado River Basin, which provides water to greater than 40 million individuals 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 available water provide to irrigate their crops.

In April, federal water managers warned the seven states that draw from the Colorado River that the federal government was considering taking emergency action to deal with declining water levels at Lake Powell.

Later that month, representatives from the states sent a letter to the Interior agreeing with the proposal and requesting that short-term 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 within the region in no less than 1,200 years, with circumstances more likely to continue by 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 responsible for that, and we've to take responsible action to respond," Trujillo stated. "All of us need to work together to guard the assets we now have and the declining water provides within the Colorado River that our communities rely on."