Lake Powell Glen Canyon Dam water launch 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 via Getty Pictures

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

The choice will preserve extra water in Lake Powell, the reservoir positioned on the Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona, as an alternative of releasing it downstream to Lake Mead, the river's other primary reservoir.

The actions come as water ranges at each reservoirs reached their lowest ranges on document. Lake Powell's water level is presently at an elevation of 3,523 toes. If the level drops beneath 3,490 ft, the so-called minimum power pool, the Glen Canyon Dam, which supplies electrical energy for about 5.8 million prospects in the inland West, will not be able to generate electrical energy.

The delay is predicted to guard operations on the dam for subsequent 12 months, officials stated throughout a press briefing on Tuesday, and can keep nearly 500,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Powell. Beneath a separate plan, officers may even launch about 500,000 acre-feet of water into Lake Powell from Flaming Gorge, a reservoir positioned upstream on the Utah-Wyoming border.

Officers stated the actions will assist save water, shield the dam's potential to supply hydropower and supply officers with more time to determine easy methods to operate the dam at lower water levels.

"We have now never taken this step earlier than in the Colorado Basin," assistant Interior Division secretary Tanya Trujillo told reporters on Tuesday. "However the situations we see right this moment, and what we see on the horizon, demand that we take prompt action."

Federal officials last 12 months ordered the first-ever water cuts for the Colorado River Basin, which supplies water to more than 40 million people and a few 2.5 million acres of croplands within the West. The cuts have principally affected farmers in Arizona, who use almost three-quarters of the available 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 motion to address declining water ranges at Lake Powell.

Later that month, representatives from the states despatched a letter to the Inside agreeing with the proposal and requesting that temporary reductions in releases from Lake Powell be implemented without triggering additional water cuts in any of the states.

The megadrought in the western U.S. has fueled the driest 20 years in the region in no less than 1,200 years, with circumstances likely to proceed by 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 responsible for that, and we've got to take accountable action to reply," Trujillo stated. "We all must work collectively to protect the resources we have now and the declining water supplies in the Colorado River that our communities rely on."