Vital Lake Mead Drops to Record Low Level

Lake Mead just slipped past an unwanted milestone: It's now at its lowest level since the reservoir was filled in the 1930s. The lake's surface fell to 1,040.5 feet on Thursday, edging below its previous record from 2022 and reinforcing what one researcher called "uncharted territory" for the Colorado River Basin, reports CNN. Mead, created by the Hoover Dam and supplying water to more than 20 million people, is one of two key reservoirs on the overtaxed river. The other, Lake Powell, is also hovering near record lows.

"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," says Kathryn Sorensen of Arizona State University's Kyl Center for Water Policy. Federal officials have outlined a 10-year plan that could cut water deliveries to lower-basin states (California, Nevada, and Arizona) by up to 3 million acre-feet a year, with specific reductions through 2028 expected soon. The upper-basin states of Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico, and Colorado would not see mandatory cuts under the current plan, per the Boulder City Review.