Lake Powell Glen Canyon Dam water launch delayed because of 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 Put up by way of Getty Images

The federal government on Tuesday announced it would delay the discharge of water from one of the Colorado River's main reservoirs, an unprecedented action that may briefly handle declining reservoir levels fueled by the historic Western drought.

The decision will keep more water in Lake Powell, the reservoir located on the Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona, as a substitute of releasing it downstream to Lake Mead, the river's other main reservoir.

The actions come as water ranges at both reservoirs reached their lowest ranges on file. Lake Powell's water degree is presently at an elevation of three,523 ft. If the level drops under 3,490 toes, the so-called minimum energy pool, the Glen Canyon Dam, which supplies electricity for about 5.8 million prospects in the inland West, will no longer have the ability to generate electrical energy.

The delay is expected to protect operations at the dam for next 12 months, officers said during a press briefing on Tuesday, and can preserve practically 500,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Powell. Underneath 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.

Officials said the actions will help save water, defend the dam's capability to provide hydropower and supply officials with extra time to figure out the best way to function the dam at lower water ranges.

"We have now never taken this step before in the Colorado Basin," assistant Interior Division secretary Tanya Trujillo advised reporters on Tuesday. "But the conditions we see in the present day, and what we see on the horizon, demand that we take immediate motion."

Federal officers last yr ordered the first-ever water cuts for the Colorado River Basin, which supplies water to more than 40 million individuals 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 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 considering taking emergency action to deal with declining water ranges 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 further water cuts in any of the states.

The megadrought within the western U.S. has fueled the driest 20 years in the region in not less than 1,200 years, with circumstances prone to continue by way of 2022 and persist for years. Researchers have estimated that 42% of the drought's severity is attributable to human-caused climate change.

"Our climate is changing, our actions are accountable for that, and we have now to take accountable action to reply," Trujillo stated. "All of us have to work collectively to protect the resources we have and the declining water provides within the Colorado River that our communities rely on."