US authorities announced Tuesday a series of extraordinary measures to store hundreds of billions of liters (gallons) of water in a reservoir located on the border between Utah and Arizona, in order to prevent its further shrinking due to the prolonged drought and climate change.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation plans to retain about 480,000 acre-feet (592 million cubic meters) of water in Lake Powell to maintain Glen Canyon Dam’s ability to produce hydroelectric power for millions of homes and businesses around the world. region.
This represents a quantity of water sufficient to supply between 1 million and 1.5 million homes per year.
Tanya Trujillo, assistant secretary for water and science at the Department of the Interior, said keeping water stored in the reservoir would stave off hydropower problems for at least 12 months, giving officials time to strategize on how to operate the dam with a lower water elevation.
Currently, the lake retains less than a quarter of its total capacity, and the dam produces electricity for some 5 million consumers in seven US states.
“We have never taken this action before in the Colorado River Basin, but current conditions and the potential risks we see on the horizon demand that we act quickly,” Trujillo said.
This decision will not have immediate repercussions on the amount of water allocated to the cities of the region. And it won’t affect Colorado River-dependent farms, which are already facing mandatory cuts in central Arizona.
This situation illustrates the problems facing Mexico and the seven US states that depend on the Colorado River, which supplies water to some 40 million people and a $5 billion-a-year agricultural sector.
The flow of the river is less than that consumed by cities and farms throughout the region. And water levels in the river’s two main storage reservoirs – Lake Mead and Lake Powell – have plummeted substantially over the past two decades, to the point that boaters on Sunday found a body in a barrel it had been submerged in place for decades.