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 Web page, Arizona.

Rj Sangosti| Medianews Group | The Denver Submit through Getty Photos

The federal government on Tuesday introduced it can delay the discharge of water from one of the Colorado River's main reservoirs, an unprecedented motion that can temporarily handle declining reservoir ranges fueled by the historic Western drought.

The choice will preserve more 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 other main reservoir.

The actions come as water ranges at both reservoirs reached their lowest ranges on record. Lake Powell's water stage is currently at an elevation of three,523 toes. If the extent drops beneath 3,490 feet, the so-called minimal power pool, the Glen Canyon Dam, which supplies electricity for about 5.8 million customers in the inland West, will now not be capable to generate electrical energy.

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

Officials said the actions will assist save water, defend the dam's skill to produce hydropower and provide officers with extra time to figure out how to function the dam at decrease water ranges.

"Now we have never taken this step earlier than within the Colorado Basin," assistant Interior Division 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 action."

Federal officials last year ordered the first-ever water cuts for the Colorado River Basin, which provides water to greater than 40 million people and some 2.5 million acres of croplands in the West. The cuts have mostly affected farmers in Arizona, who use nearly 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 motion to deal with declining water levels at Lake Powell.

Later that month, representatives from the states sent a letter to the Inside agreeing with the proposal and requesting that momentary reductions in releases from Lake Powell be implemented with out triggering additional water cuts in any of the states.

The megadrought in the western U.S. has fueled the driest two decades in the area in at least 1,200 years, with situations more likely to continue through 2022 and persist for years. Researchers have estimated that 42% of the drought's severity is attributable to human-caused climate change.

"Our climate is altering, our actions are chargeable for that, and we now have to take accountable motion to respond," Trujillo said. "We all have to work collectively to protect the sources we now have and the declining water provides in the Colorado River that our communities depend on."