Lake Powell Glen Canyon Dam water release delayed resulting from drought

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

Rj Sangosti| Medianews Group | The Denver Post via Getty Photos

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

The choice will keep more water in Lake Powell, the reservoir located on the Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona, instead of releasing it downstream to Lake Mead, the river's other major reservoir.

The actions come as water ranges at both reservoirs reached their lowest ranges on document. Lake Powell's water stage is at the moment at an elevation of three,523 ft. If the level drops below 3,490 feet, the so-called minimum power pool, the Glen Canyon Dam, which supplies electrical energy for about 5.8 million prospects within the inland West, will no longer be able to generate electricity.

The delay is predicted to protect operations at the dam for subsequent 12 months, officers mentioned throughout a press briefing on Tuesday, and can maintain nearly 500,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Powell. Underneath a separate plan, officials will also launch about 500,000 acre-feet of water into Lake Powell from Flaming Gorge, a reservoir situated upstream at the Utah-Wyoming border.

Officials stated the actions will help save water, defend the dam's skill to provide hydropower and provide officials with more time to figure out find out how to function the dam at lower water levels.

"We have now never taken this step earlier than within the Colorado Basin," assistant Interior Department secretary Tanya Trujillo informed reporters on Tuesday. "However the situations we see as we speak, and what we see on the horizon, demand that we take immediate action."

Federal officers final 12 months ordered the first-ever water cuts for the Colorado River Basin, which provides water to greater 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 nearly three-quarters of the obtainable water supply to irrigate their crops.

In April, federal water managers warned the seven states that draw from the Colorado River that the 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 non permanent reductions in releases from Lake Powell be implemented with out triggering additional water cuts in any of the states.

The megadrought in the western U.S. has fueled the driest two decades in the area in not less than 1,200 years, with circumstances more likely to continue via 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 answerable for that, and we have now to take accountable motion to respond," Trujillo mentioned. "We all have to work collectively to guard the sources now we have and the declining water supplies within the Colorado River that our communities rely on."