BOULDER CITY, Nev. — The Lake Mead water level has dropped to its lowest point since the reservoir was first filled nearly 90 years ago, underscoring the escalating strain on the Colorado River that supplies water and power across the Southwest.
Federal data show Lake Mead stood at 1,040.4 feet, or 317.1 meters, above sea level on Friday. That falls just below the previous mark of 1,040.58 feet, or 317.27 meters, recorded on July 28, 2022 at the reservoir on the Arizona-Nevada line near Las Vegas.
The new low follows a winter that delivered the worst snowpack on record in the Colorado River Basin. Snowmelt feeds the river, a critical source for farms, industries, wildlife, hydropower generation and more than 40 million people across seven U.S. states, tribal nations and Mexico.
Lake Mead water level and federal response
The record comes a week after federal authorities outlined a short-term plan intended to avert a deeper crisis on the river. Officials intervened after the basin states — California, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Wyoming and Utah — were unable to agree on a long-term framework to divide a shrinking supply. Under the proposal, California, Nevada and Arizona would share reductions in water use.
Persistent overuse combined with drought and rising temperatures has driven down storage in Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the nation’s second-largest reservoir. The two Colorado River reservoirs are now at their lowest combined levels in nearly 70 years.
To preserve the system’s hydropower capability, federal officials said Thursday they will not release cold water from Lake Powell through Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona to aid a threatened native fish that inhabits the river reach between the two reservoirs.
Severe drought conditions in 2022 at Lake Mead, which is impounded by Hoover Dam, revealed human remains along the receding shoreline and forced Las Vegas-area water managers to draw supply from deeper intake points to continue serving millions of customers.
States throughout the West have been reassessing long-term resource planning as climate and infrastructure challenges mount, echoing broader national debates over federal authority described in Supreme Court international law stance draws sharp scrutiny.