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 via Getty Images

The federal authorities on Tuesday introduced it's going to delay the discharge of water from one of the Colorado River's main reservoirs, an unprecedented action that will temporarily handle declining reservoir ranges fueled by the historic Western drought.

The decision will hold more 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 levels at both reservoirs reached their lowest levels on report. Lake Powell's water level is presently at an elevation of three,523 ft. If the level drops below 3,490 ft, the so-called minimal energy pool, the Glen Canyon Dam, which supplies electricity for about 5.8 million prospects within the inland West, will no longer be able to generate electricity.

The delay is expected to protect operations at the dam for subsequent 12 months, officials said throughout a press briefing on Tuesday, and will maintain practically 500,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Powell. Below a separate plan, officials may also launch about 500,000 acre-feet of water into Lake Powell from Flaming Gorge, a reservoir positioned upstream on the Utah-Wyoming border.

Officials said the actions will help save water, defend the dam's ability to provide hydropower and provide officers with more time to figure out how to function the dam at lower water ranges.

"We have by no means taken this step before within the Colorado Basin," assistant Interior Department secretary Tanya Trujillo instructed reporters on Tuesday. "But the circumstances we see in the present day, and what we see on the horizon, demand that we take immediate motion."

Federal officers last 12 months ordered the first-ever water cuts for the Colorado River Basin, which supplies water to greater than 40 million folks 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 accessible 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 contemplating taking emergency action to address declining water ranges 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 without triggering additional water cuts in any of the states.

The megadrought in the western U.S. has fueled the driest two decades in the region in at least 1,200 years, with situations likely to proceed 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 local weather is altering, our actions are chargeable for that, and now we have to take accountable action to reply," Trujillo said. "All of us have to work together to protect the sources we've and the declining water provides within the Colorado River that our communities rely on."