Lake Powell Glen Canyon Dam water release delayed due to drought

Water ranges are at a historic low at Lake Powell on April 5, 2022 in Page, Arizona.

Rj Sangosti| Medianews Group | The Denver Post through Getty Images

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

The choice will keep 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 levels at each reservoirs reached their lowest ranges on document. Lake Powell's water level is at the moment at an elevation of 3,523 ft. If the extent drops below 3,490 ft, the so-called minimal power pool, the Glen Canyon Dam, which provides electrical energy for about 5.8 million customers within the inland West, will not be capable to generate electrical energy.

The delay is expected to guard operations at the dam for next 12 months, officials said during a press briefing on Tuesday, and will maintain practically 500,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Powell. Below a separate plan, officials will even release 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 supply hydropower and supply officers with more time to figure out how you can function the dam at lower water ranges.

"We've got by no means taken this step before within the Colorado Basin," assistant Interior Division secretary Tanya Trujillo advised reporters on Tuesday. "But the conditions we see at the moment, and what we see on the horizon, demand that we take prompt action."

Federal officials final yr ordered the first-ever water cuts for the Colorado River Basin, which supplies water to more than 40 million people and a few 2.5 million acres of croplands within the West. The cuts have mostly affected farmers in Arizona, who use practically 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 government was contemplating taking emergency motion to address 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 momentary reductions in releases from Lake Powell be applied 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 region in not less than 1,200 years, with circumstances more likely to proceed by means of 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 accountable for that, and we've to take responsible action to reply," Trujillo mentioned. "We all need to work collectively to protect the resources we've got and the declining water provides in the Colorado River that our communities rely on."