{"id":815655,"date":"2026-08-16T16:02:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T16:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/815655\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T16:02:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T16:02:12","slug":"lake-powell-second-largest-reservoir-in-us-plunges-to-a-record-low","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/815655\/","title":{"rendered":"Lake Powell, second-largest reservoir in US, plunges to a record low"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Lake Powell, the second-largest reservoir in the United States, provides water and electricity to millions in the West. It has now has shrunk to its lowest level on record, in the latest sign<\/a> of the alarming crisis unfolding on the drought-stricken Colorado River.\n <\/p>\n

\n The reservoir\u2019s levels dropped to 3519.91 feet on Saturday<\/a>, breaking the record low of 3,519.92 feet set in April 2023, according to data from the US Bureau of Reclamation published Sunday. It is now just under 30 feet away from the point at which its dam will no longer be able to generate hydropower.\n <\/p>\n

\n The record comes nine days after downstream Lake Mead, the US\u2019s biggest reservoir, dropped to its lowest level since it was first filled nine decades ago. \u201cWe are in uncharted territory,\u201d said Jack Schmidt, director of the Center for Colorado River Studies at Utah State University.\n <\/p>\n

\n Lakes Mead and Powell, which are essentially one gigantic reservoir separated by the Grand Canyon, hold just under 60% of the total water currently stored in the Colorado River basin. The unprecedented decline of these vast bodies of water, which have been shrinking for more than 20 years, drives home the perilous state of the river that feeds them.\n <\/p>\n

\n Known as the lifeblood of the Southwest, the Colorado River starts in the Rocky Mountains, fed by melting snowpack, and ends in the Gulf of California in Mexico. It provides water to roughly 40 million people and irrigates more than 5 million acres of farmland across seven states: California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Wyoming, Colorado and Utah.\n <\/p>\n

\n Climate change-fueled drought and increases in temperature, combined with years of heavy water use, have caused the crucial waterway to shrink by roughly 20% since 2000. And Mead and Powell have been heavily affected.\n <\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\n Spanning parts of Arizona and Utah, Lake Powell formed behind the Glen Canyon Dam, which was constructed in the 1950s. The vast reservoir started filling in 1963 and took 17 years to reach its full pool level of 3,700 feet<\/a> above sea level.\n <\/p>\n

\n It\u2019s often referred to as a water \u201cbank account\u201d that can be used in dry years to send supplies downstream to cities, farms and businesses.\n <\/p>\n

\n The reservoir\u2019s level has always fluctuated. Every year, between May and July, it\u2019s boosted by runoff from melting snow. It then decreases over the rest of the year, leaving distinctive \u201cbathtub ring\u201d formations along its rocky shoreline.\n <\/p>\n

\n However, this year, as with many recent years, Powell has suffered from a dearth of snow \u2014 last winter was one of the driest and warmest on record<\/a> for the western US.\n <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\n A major concern is the impact on energy generation. The force of the Colorado River turns the Glen Canyon Dam\u2019s eight huge turbines, producing enough electricity each year to power nearly 500,000 households.<\/a> It\u2019s relied on by Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and Nebraska.\n <\/p>\n

\n The reservoir could now be barreling toward \u201cminimum power pool\u201d \u2014 at 3,490 feet \u2014 when water levels will be too low to spin the turbines and generate electricity.\n <\/p>\n

\n This \u201cscary threshold\u201d will be reached this year unless \u201cextraordinary measures\u201d are taken, said Brad Udall, a senior water and climate research scientist at Colorado State University. These include reductions in water releases from Lake Powell and upstream, he added.\n <\/p>\n

\n The most alarming scenario would see Lake Powell reaching \u201cdeadpool\u201d levels of below 3,370 feet. At this point water would no longer be able to flow downstream from the dam at all.\n <\/p>\n

\n It\u2019s very hard to imagine this, Utah State\u2019s Schmidt said. \u201cI would expect draconian steps to decrease water use to prevent this from occurring. But who knows?\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n A spokesperson for the Bureau of Reclamation said it and the Department of the Interior remained \u201ccommitted to reducing the collective risk of both Lake Powell and Lake Mead falling below critical elevations to protect critical infrastructure to continue to meet the water and hydropower needs of the basin.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Houseboats<\/p>\n

\n Experts don\u2019t currently believe there is a risk of people\u2019s taps running dry; the Colorado River is a slow-moving crisis and many water managers have taken steps to prepare.\n <\/p>\n

\n Cities like Pheonix and Tucson \u201care extremely aware that they are first in line for cuts,\u201d and have taken steps to ensure they have the back-up supplies to meet demand, said Sarah Porter, director of the Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University. But while cities can pay for alternative water supplies, this might be less feasible for Tribes and smaller communities along the Colorado River, she added.\n <\/p>\n

\n Powell\u2019s record low comes as the seven states that share the Colorado River\u2019s water wait to find out what cuts will be imposed. After years of fraught negotiations between the states failed to yield a deal, federal authorities have stepped in<\/a> and are expected to publish a plan in the coming days specifying the exact reductions required of states through 2028.\n <\/p>\n

\n There is some hope that the El Ni\u00f1o climate pattern, which tends to bring more frequent rain and snow to the Southwest, could help. But experts are clear it will take more than one very wet winter to pull the Colorado River out of crisis.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cEven record snowpack this winter will not be enough to get us out of the danger zone,\u201d Porter said.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lake Powell, the second-largest reservoir in the United States, provides water and electricity to millions in the West.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":815656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-815655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=815655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/815656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=815655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=815655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=815655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}