For the first time, water levels in Lake Mead have dropped low enough to expose one of three original intake valves. The valve has been drawing water since 1971, but that is no longer possible.
Photos show the intake valve completely dry above the water line, which stood at 1,055 feet above sea level as of Wednesday, down from 1,060 feet on April 4, when the top of the intake was first exposed.
According to the Southern Nevada Water Authority, which is responsible for managing water resources for 2.2 million people in Southern Nevada, the prospect of dropping water levels below critical elevations in Lake Mead is a real concern.
According to the Las Vegas Sun, this month, the seven Colorado River Basin States — Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming — agreed with federal officials’ recommendations to institute a 480,000 acre-foot reduction from Glen Canyon Dam on Lake Powell to reduce the risk of the lake declining below 3,490 feet.
The move was in response to a letter sent to the Colorado River Basin States on April 8, from the Interior Department stating that “it is our collective judgment that additional cooperative actions should be taken this spring to reduce the risk of Lake Powell declining below critical elevations.”
Officials are still able to draw water from Lake Mead, though. In another first, they’ve begun using a low-lake pumping station, which was built with the West’s worsening drought in mind. It was only completed in 2020.
Overview of conditions
Across the Western U.S., extreme drought is already taking a toll this year and summertime heat hasn’t even arrived yet. Because of low-runoff conditions and record droughts over the past two decades, water storage in the Colorado River reservoirs is at a historic low. Lake Powell is at 25 percent capacity, and Lake Mead is around 35 persent capacity.
The US Drought Monitor reported worsening drought conditions on Thursday, with Extreme and exceptional drought, the two worst designations, expanding across New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado (three of the seven basin states).
New Mexico’s drought has been steadily intensifying since the beginning of the year, and extreme or exceptional drought now covers 68 percent of the state.
And further west, in Southern California, officials are now demanding that residents and businesses limit outdoor watering to one day a week, after a disappointing winter with little rain or snow. This is the very first time such an order has been implemented, according to CNN News.
“This is a crisis. This is unprecedented,” said Adel Hagekhalil, general manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. “We have never done anything like this before and because we haven’t seen this situation happen like this before. We don’t have enough water to meet normal demands for the six million people living in the State Water Project dependent areas.”
Both Lake Powell and Lake Mead provide drinking water and irrigation for many communities across the region, including rural farms, ranches and native communities.
The federal government declared a water shortage on the Colorado River for the first time last summer. The shortage triggered mandatory water consumption cuts for states in the Southwest, which began in January.
However, in March this year, water levels in Lake Powell dropped below a critical threshold that threatens the Glen Canyon Dam’s ability to generate power.
The West is in its worst drought in centuries, scientists reported Monday. A study published in February found the period from 2000 to 2021 was the driest in for the region 1,200 years.Human-caused climate change has made the megafrought 72 percent worse, according to the study.
“We’re kind of in some uncharted territory, socially and economically,” Justin Mankin, assistant professor of geography at Dartmouth College and co-lead of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Drought Task Force, told CNN in March.
