Lake Powell Glen Canyon Dam water release delayed as a result 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 announced it would delay the release of water from one of the Colorado River's main reservoirs, an unprecedented action that will quickly tackle declining reservoir levels fueled by the historic Western drought.

The choice will maintain extra water in Lake Powell, the reservoir positioned on the Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona, as a substitute of releasing it downstream to Lake Mead, the river's different primary reservoir.

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

The delay is anticipated to protect operations at the dam for next 12 months, officials mentioned during a press briefing on Tuesday, and will keep practically 500,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Powell. Under a separate plan, officers can even launch about 500,000 acre-feet of water into Lake Powell from Flaming Gorge, a reservoir situated upstream on the Utah-Wyoming border.

Officials stated the actions will assist save water, protect the dam's means to provide hydropower and provide officials with more time to determine how you can operate the dam at lower water ranges.

"We've by no means taken this step earlier than in the Colorado Basin," assistant Interior Department secretary Tanya Trujillo advised reporters on Tuesday. "However the conditions we see at the moment, and what we see on the horizon, demand that we take prompt action."

Federal officers final 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 principally affected farmers in Arizona, who use practically 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 address 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 without triggering further water cuts in any of the states.

The megadrought in the western U.S. has fueled the driest 20 years in the area in at the very least 1,200 years, with conditions prone to proceed through 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 responsible for that, and we've got to take responsible motion to respond," Trujillo mentioned. "All of us must work together to protect the assets we have now and the declining water supplies within the Colorado River that our communities rely on."