Lake Powell Glen Canyon Dam water release delayed on account 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 via Getty Pictures

The federal government on Tuesday announced it would delay the discharge of water from one of many Colorado River's major reservoirs, an unprecedented action that can briefly tackle declining reservoir ranges fueled by the historic Western drought.

The choice will keep more water in Lake Powell, the reservoir located at the Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona, instead of releasing it downstream to Lake Mead, the river's different major reservoir.

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

The delay is predicted to protect operations on the dam for subsequent 12 months, officers mentioned throughout a press briefing on Tuesday, and can preserve almost 500,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Powell. Beneath a separate plan, officers can even launch about 500,000 acre-feet of water into Lake Powell from Flaming Gorge, a reservoir positioned upstream on the Utah-Wyoming border.

Officers mentioned the actions will assist save water, protect the dam's potential to provide hydropower and supply officers with extra time to figure out the right way to operate the dam at lower water ranges.

"Now we have never taken this step earlier than in the Colorado Basin," assistant Inside Division secretary Tanya Trujillo advised reporters on Tuesday. "However the situations we see right now, and what we see on the horizon, demand that we take immediate action."

Federal officers final yr 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 within the West. The cuts have largely affected farmers in Arizona, who use nearly three-quarters of the available 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 sent a letter to the Interior agreeing with the proposal and requesting that temporary reductions in releases from Lake Powell be implemented with out triggering further water cuts in any of the states.

The megadrought in the western U.S. has fueled the driest twenty years within the area in no less than 1,200 years, with situations more likely to proceed through 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 altering, our actions are liable for that, and we've got to take responsible motion to reply," Trujillo mentioned. "We all must work collectively to protect the sources we now have and the declining water supplies in the Colorado River that our communities rely on."