Lake Mead Warning Issued: 'On a Knife's Edge'
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
A warning has been issued over low water levels at Lake Mead and Lake Powell, with advocates saying the Colorado River Basin is "on a knife's edge."
Dry conditions and disappointing runoff from winter snowpack have sharply reduced the Colorado River's flow, straining a vital water supply for millions across the American Southwest.
Why It Matters
Lake Mead is a vital water source for millions of people across Nevada, Arizona, California, and parts of Mexico. Its declining levels could potentially jeopardize municipal water supplies, agricultural irrigation, and hydroelectric power generation.
A ferry boat passes Rock Island rises on Lake Mead along the Colorado River on March 14, 2025 in Boulder City, Nevada.
A ferry boat passes Rock Island rises on Lake Mead along the Colorado River on March 14, 2025 in Boulder City, Nevada.What To Know
As of May 30, Lake Mead's water level measured 1,057.43 feet mean sea level (MSL), 171.57 feet below its full pool of 1,229. Lake Powell was at 3,558.92 feet MSL, 141.08 feet below its full pool of 3,700 feet, according to Lakes Online, an online resource for lake and reservoir information.
The levels, combined with disappointing snowmelts, have raised the prospect of deeper shortages and cutbacks in water deliveries in the years ahead, according to the Los Angeles Times.
John Berggren, the regional policy manager for the nonprofit group Western Resource Advocates, told the paper, "Increasing temperatures in recent decades are having a real impact on runoff."
"It's something that, unfortunately, we're going to see more and more of, where you need well above average snowpack to come somewhere close to average runoff because of the warming temperatures," he continued.
"We're kind of on a knife's edge between being OK and being in very scary, catastrophic situations," Berggren added.
Lake Mead is the largest reservoir in the U.S., with a capacity of nearly 29 million acre-feet of water. It is followed closely by Lake Powell, which can hold some 26 million acre-feet.
Lake Mead, which receives flows from Lake Powell, hit critically low levels during the summer of 2022 following years of drought. Levels have somewhat recovered since.
What People Are Saying
Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA, told the Los Angeles Times: "This is another year that is not going to help the Colorado basin's long-term water crisis. It's going to make things worse. This year will once again be putting more stress on the Colorado system."
Kyle Roerink, executive director of the Great Basin Water Network, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal previously: "It's going to be a painful summer, watching the levels go down. We're getting to those dangerous levels we saw a few years ago."
"These types of runoff conditions make water managers nervous. They make NGOs nervous, and they certainly make water users nervous."
What Happens Next
An earlier study from UCLA and the Natural Resources Defense Council suggested that raising wastewater recycling to 40 percent in the Colorado Basin could conserve nearly 900,000 acre-feet annually, potentially supplying nearly two million households.
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