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 Post via Getty Photos

The federal government on Tuesday announced it's going to delay the discharge of water from one of many Colorado River's major reservoirs, an unprecedented motion that may temporarily address declining reservoir levels fueled by the historic Western drought.

The choice will maintain extra water in Lake Powell, the reservoir situated on 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 document. Lake Powell's water level is at present at an elevation of 3,523 ft. If the level drops beneath 3,490 feet, the so-called minimal energy pool, the Glen Canyon Dam, which provides electricity for about 5.8 million prospects within the inland West, will not be able to generate electrical energy.

The delay is anticipated to guard operations on the dam for subsequent 12 months, officials mentioned during a press briefing on Tuesday, and will preserve nearly 500,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Powell. Below a separate plan, officials may also launch about 500,000 acre-feet of water into Lake Powell from Flaming Gorge, a reservoir situated upstream at the Utah-Wyoming border.

Officials stated the actions will assist save water, defend the dam's capacity to provide hydropower and supply officials with more time to figure out learn how to function the dam at lower water ranges.

"We now have by no means taken this step before in the Colorado Basin," assistant Interior Department secretary Tanya Trujillo instructed reporters on Tuesday. "But the situations we see at this time, and what we see on the horizon, demand that we take prompt motion."

Federal officers last yr ordered the first-ever water cuts for the Colorado River Basin, which provides water to more than 40 million individuals and a few 2.5 million acres of croplands in the West. The cuts have largely affected farmers in Arizona, who use almost three-quarters of the obtainable 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 handle declining water levels at Lake Powell.

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

The megadrought within the western U.S. has fueled the driest twenty years within the area in a minimum of 1,200 years, with conditions more likely to continue via 2022 and persist for years. Researchers have estimated that 42% of the drought's severity is attributable to human-caused local weather change.

"Our climate is changing, our actions are chargeable for that, and we've got to take responsible action to reply," Trujillo mentioned. "We all need to work together to guard the assets we have now and the declining water supplies within the Colorado River that our communities rely on."