Lake Powell Glen Canyon Dam water release 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 Post through Getty Photos

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

The decision will preserve more water in Lake Powell, the reservoir situated at the Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona, as a substitute 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 record. Lake Powell's water degree is currently at an elevation of three,523 ft. If the level drops under 3,490 feet, the so-called minimal energy pool, the Glen Canyon Dam, which provides electricity for about 5.8 million clients within the inland West, will no longer be able to generate electrical energy.

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

Officials said the actions will help save water, defend the dam's ability to produce hydropower and supply officials with extra time to figure out easy methods to function the dam at decrease water ranges.

"Now we have by no means taken this step earlier than within the Colorado Basin," assistant Interior Department secretary Tanya Trujillo told reporters on Tuesday. "But the conditions we see today, and what we see on the horizon, demand that we take prompt action."

Federal officers last year ordered the first-ever water cuts for the Colorado River Basin, which supplies water to greater than 40 million people and a few 2.5 million acres of croplands in the West. The cuts have largely affected farmers in Arizona, who use practically three-quarters of the accessible 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 deal with declining water levels at Lake Powell.

Later that month, representatives from the states sent a letter to the Interior agreeing with the proposal and requesting that short-term reductions in releases from Lake Powell be implemented without triggering additional water cuts in any of the states.

The megadrought within the western U.S. has fueled the driest twenty years in the area in no less than 1,200 years, with circumstances prone to continue 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 climate is altering, our actions are responsible for that, and we have now to take accountable action to reply," Trujillo said. "All of us have to work collectively to guard the resources now we have and the declining water supplies within the Colorado River that our communities depend on."