Lake Mead hits historic low water level as Colorado River struggles

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BOULDER CITY, Nev. (AP) — Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States, has plummeted to its lowest water level since it was filled some 90 years ago, another sign of the crisis plaguing the Colorado River system.

Water levels at Lake Mead hit 1,040.4 feet (317.1 meters) above sea level on Friday, according to federal data. That’s just below the elevation of 1,040.58 feet (317.27 meters) recorded on July 28, 2022 at the reservoir that straddles the Arizona-Nevada border outside Las Vegas.

The record follows a winter that produced the worst snowpack on record in the Colorado River Basin. Melting snow feeds the river, which is relied upon by farmers, industries, wildlife, hydropower producers and more than 40 million people across seven U.S. states, tribal nations and Mexico.

It comes a week after federal officials announced a short-term proposal to stave off a crisis in the beleaguered waterway. Federal officials stepped in after states that rely on the river — California, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Wyoming and Utah — failed to reach an agreement on how to share the dwindling resource long-term. Under the proposal, California, Nevada and Arizona would share water cuts.

Years of overuse combined with drought and rising temperatures have been depleting Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the country’s second-largest reservoir. Together, the two bodies of Colorado River water are the lowest they’ve been in nearly seven decades.

To protect the strained system's ability to produce hydropower, federal officials said Thursday that they will not release cool Lake Powell water from Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona to protect a threatened native fish whose habitat is between the reservoirs.

Severe drought in 2022 on Lake Mead, which is held back by the Hoover Dam, exposed human remains and forced water officials in Las Vegas to pump water from deeper within the reservoir to continue to supply water to millions of people.

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