Lake Powell Glen Canyon Dam water release delayed on account of 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 Publish through Getty Photographs

The federal government on Tuesday introduced it can delay the release of water from one of many Colorado River's main reservoirs, an unprecedented action that may briefly deal with declining reservoir ranges fueled by the historic Western drought.

The choice will keep more water in Lake Powell, the reservoir positioned at 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 levels at each reservoirs reached their lowest ranges on record. Lake Powell's water degree is at present at an elevation of 3,523 feet. If the level drops beneath 3,490 feet, the so-called minimum power pool, the Glen Canyon Dam, which supplies electricity for about 5.8 million clients within the inland West, will no longer be capable to generate electrical energy.

The delay is predicted to protect operations at the dam for next 12 months, officers said throughout a press briefing on Tuesday, and can maintain almost 500,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Powell. Below a separate plan, officers 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 mentioned the actions will assist save water, shield the dam's capability to produce hydropower and supply officers with more time to determine learn how to operate the dam at lower water levels.

"We now have never taken this step earlier than in the Colorado Basin," assistant Inside Department secretary Tanya Trujillo told reporters on Tuesday. "But the situations we see in the present day, and what we see on the horizon, demand that we take immediate motion."

Federal officers last year ordered the first-ever water cuts for the Colorado River Basin, which provides water to more than 40 million folks and some 2.5 million acres of croplands in the West. The cuts have largely affected farmers in Arizona, who use almost three-quarters of the out there water provide to irrigate their crops.

In April, federal water managers warned the seven states that draw from the Colorado River that the government was contemplating 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 momentary reductions in releases from Lake Powell be applied without triggering additional water cuts in any of the states.

The megadrought in the western U.S. has fueled the driest 20 years within the region in at the very least 1,200 years, with situations prone to continue via 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 changing, our actions are accountable for that, and we've to take accountable motion to respond," Trujillo mentioned. "We all need to work collectively to protect the assets we've got and the declining water supplies within the Colorado River that our communities rely on."