![]() “As Lake Mead continues to recede, extending launch ramps becomes more difficult and more expensive due to the topography and projected decline in water levels.” “Declining water levels due to climate change and 20 years of ongoing drought have reshaped the park’s shorelines,” the Park Service said on its website. According to the National Park Service, five of six boating ramps/launches are now closed. In addition to serving as a major drinking and irrigation source for the Southwest, Lake Mead is a national recreation area that is particularly popular with boaters. In June 2022, USBR issued an emergency request to the Colorado River basin states to reduce water usage by 2 million to 4 million acre-feet over the next 18 months. USBR announced in August 2021 that state water allocations would be cut in 2022 further modeling and negotiation is underway for 2023 allocations. The river water is allotted to states (including tribal lands) and Mexico through laws like the 1922 Colorado River Compact.Ībove Lake Mead, Lake Powell is currently filled to just 27 percent of capacity, and the entire Colorado river system stands at 35 percent. The Colorado River basin is managed by USBR and other agencies to provide electric power and water to roughly 40 million people-most notably the cities of San Diego, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Los Angeles-and 4 to 5 million acres of farmland in the Southwest. The phenomenon is often referred to as a “ bathtub ring.”Ībout 10 percent of the water in Lake Mead comes from local precipitation and groundwater each year, with the rest coming from snowmelt in the Rocky Mountains that flows down the Colorado River watershed through Lake Powell, Glen Canyon, and the Grand Canyon. The light-colored fringes along the shorelines in 20 are mineralized areas of the lakeshore that were formerly underwater when the reservoir was filled closer to capacity. The detailed images below also include a view from Landsat 8 on J(middle). The natural-color images above were acquired on July 6, 2000, and July 3, 2022, by Landsat 7 and Landsat 8. In Colorado, location of the headwaters of the Colorado River, 83 percent of the state is now in drought, and the snowpack from last winter was below average in many places. The low water level comes at time when 74 percent of nine Western states face some level of drought 35 percent of the area is in extreme or exceptional drought. It now also provides a stark illustration of climate change and a long-term drought that may be the worst in the U.S. The largest reservoir in the United States supplies water to millions of people across seven states, tribal lands, and northern Mexico. As of July 18, 2022, Lake Mead was filled to just 27 percent of capacity. Continuing a 22-year downward trend, water levels in Lake Mead stand at their lowest since April 1937, when the reservoir was still being filled for the first time. ![]()
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