Lake Powell Glen Canyon Dam water launch delayed because 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 Submit by way of Getty Pictures

The federal authorities on Tuesday announced it will delay the release of water from one of the Colorado River's main reservoirs, an unprecedented motion that may briefly tackle declining reservoir levels fueled by the historic Western drought.

The decision will preserve more water in Lake Powell, the reservoir positioned 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 each reservoirs reached their lowest levels on document. Lake Powell's water degree is currently at an elevation of three,523 feet. If the level drops under 3,490 ft, the so-called minimal power pool, the Glen Canyon Dam, which supplies electricity for about 5.8 million customers within the inland West, will now not be capable of generate electrical energy.

The delay is predicted to protect operations on the dam for next 12 months, officers mentioned during a press briefing on Tuesday, and can keep nearly 500,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Powell. Beneath a separate plan, officials can even 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 ability to produce hydropower and provide officers with extra time to determine easy methods to function the dam at lower water ranges.

"We have never taken this step before within the Colorado Basin," assistant Inside Division secretary Tanya Trujillo instructed reporters on Tuesday. "However the situations we see at the moment, 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 supplies water to greater than 40 million individuals and some 2.5 million acres of croplands within the West. The cuts have mostly affected farmers in Arizona, who use almost three-quarters of the obtainable 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 motion to handle 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 in the western U.S. has fueled the driest 20 years in the region in at the very least 1,200 years, with situations likely 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 local weather change.

"Our local weather is changing, our actions are liable for that, and we now have to take responsible action to respond," Trujillo stated. "We all have to work collectively to protect the sources we've and the declining water provides in the Colorado River that our communities rely on."