Lake Mead hits lowest water level on record as Colorado River crisis deepens

With a bathtub ring marking the high water line, a recreational boat approaches Hoover Dam as it makes its way along Black Canyon on Lake Mead, Tuesday, April 16, 2013, near Boulder City, Nev. Citing drought and demand, advocacy group American Rivers is calling the Colorado River the nation's most endangered waterway. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States, has fallen to a record low — yet another sign that the Colorado River system is spiraling further into crisis.

Water levels on Thursday in Lake Mead dropped to 1,040.5 feet, below the previous record low of 1,040.58 feet set in July 2022, according to data published by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Friday. The lake is now lower than it’s ever been since it was created nine decades ago.

“Breaking the record is further evidence of the uncharted territory that the (Colorado River) Basin now finds itself,” said Jack Schmidt, director of the Centre for Colorado River Studies at Utah State University.

Lake Mead, which stretches along the Utah-Arizona border, was formed in the mid-1930s when the Hoover Dam was constructed on the Colorado River. The lake supplies water to more than 20 million people.

It’s one of the most important reservoirs on this vital waterway, along with Lake Powell, which experts also fear could reach record low levels in the next few weeks.

In July, the combined water level in the two reservoirs tumbled to a historic low. Together, the reservoirs haven’t been so low since 1957, during the construction of the Glen Canyon Dam, before Lake Powell even filled up.

“Lake Mead and Lake Powell are essentially the region’s savings account, and we’ve been drawing it down for years because the river has been overallocated while enduring 25 years of persistent drought,” said Kathryn Sorensen, director of research at Arizona State University’s Kyl Center for Water Policy.

A spokesperson for the Bureau of Reclamation said that it and the Department of the Interior remained “committed to reducing the collective risk of both Lake Powell and Lake Mead falling below critical elevations to protect critical infrastructure to continue to meet the water and hydropower needs of the basin.”

The decline of these vast reservoirs underscores the perilous situation of the Colorado River. The 1,400-mile artery is the lifeblood of the Southwest, irrigating more than 5 million acres of farmland, generating enough electricity to power around 700,000 homes and providing water for 40 million people. It’s also a vital wildlife habitat and a key tourist draw.

Its headwaters start in the Rocky Mountains, fed by snowpack, before it winds through seven states, filling Lake Mead and Lake Powell on its way to the Gulf of California.

Yet years of heavy demand combined with climate change-driven hotter, drier weather and a dearth of snow have pushed the river system into crisis — and the impact on Lake Mead has been significant.

“There was very little snowpack last winter, and we’ve had one of the lowest runoff years on record,” said Sarah Porter, director of the Kyl Centre for Water Policy at Arizona State University.

The reservoir has been on a more than 20-year downward trajectory. Receding water has revealed distinctive “bathtub rings” that show previous water levels etched into its rocky shoreline, as well as gruesome discoveries, including a decades-old murder victim in a barrel found in 2022.

The shrinking lake also affects tourism. Lake Mead was designated the US’s first national recreation area in 1964, and its sparkling waters and rugged mountains have long drawn people for boating, hiking, fishing and camping.

Lake Mead’s record low comes as states face steep cuts in their water use from the Colorado River.

The seven states that rely on the drought-stricken waterway — California, Nevada and Arizona in the lower basin, and Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico and Colorado in the upper basin — have been locked in fraught negotiations over how to share its declining water for years. Deadlines have come and gone, and no deal has been reached.

In July, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation released a 10-year operating framework for the waterway under which the lower basin states could face collective cuts of up to 3 million acre feet per year — enough water to supply roughly 9 million average U.S. families.

“This framework provides the flexibility to respond to changing hydrologic conditions while preserving the opportunity for the Basin States to continue working toward durable, consensus-based solutions,” said Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum in a statement Friday.

Reclamation is expected to publish two-year operating guidelines in the coming days that will specify the exact cuts required of states through 2028 — anticipated to be around 20 per cent for the lower basin states. No mandatory cuts are expected for the upper basin states.

Experts fear the current plan won’t be enough as the water crisis deepens.

Lake Mead’s tumble to a record low is “yet another indicator of the entire Colorado River system’s precarious condition,” Porter said, “…but it’s not a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention.”