Lake Powell Glen Canyon Dam water release delayed as a consequence of drought

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

Rj Sangosti| Medianews Group | The Denver Post by way of Getty Photos

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

The decision will keep extra water in Lake Powell, the reservoir situated at 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 both reservoirs reached their lowest levels on record. Lake Powell's water level is at the moment at an elevation of three,523 ft. If the extent drops below 3,490 feet, the so-called minimum power pool, the Glen Canyon Dam, which provides electrical energy for about 5.8 million clients within the inland West, will now not be able to generate electrical energy.

The delay is anticipated to protect operations on the dam for subsequent 12 months, officers said throughout a press briefing on Tuesday, and can preserve nearly 500,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Powell. Under a separate plan, officials may also release 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, protect the dam's capacity to supply hydropower and provide officials with more time to determine function the dam at lower water ranges.

"Now we have never taken this step before in the Colorado Basin," assistant Inside Department secretary Tanya Trujillo advised reporters on Tuesday. "However the situations we see today, and what we see on the horizon, demand that we take prompt action."

Federal officers last 12 months ordered the first-ever water cuts for the Colorado River Basin, which supplies water to greater than 40 million individuals and a few 2.5 million acres of croplands in the West. The cuts have principally affected farmers in Arizona, who use nearly 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 considering taking emergency motion to deal with 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 non permanent reductions in releases from Lake Powell be applied without triggering additional water cuts in any of the states.

The megadrought within the western U.S. has fueled the driest two decades in the region in at least 1,200 years, with conditions 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 local weather is altering, our actions are chargeable for that, and we have to take responsible motion to respond," Trujillo mentioned. "All of us need to work together to protect the sources we've got and the declining water provides within the Colorado River that our communities rely on."