The largest capacity reservoir in the United States has hit its lowest water level in history following years of severe drought that have dramatically reduced flows from the Colorado River, water managers said on Wednesday.
Officials said Nevada’s Lake Mead, the 79-year-old reservoir created by the massive Hoover Dam, registered 1,074.98 feet (327.7 meters) above sea level late on Tuesday, but was able to rise above a critical mark by early on Wednesday morning.
A water level of below 1,075 feet projected for January would translate to water cutbacks in 2016 for two U.S. western states, Arizona and Nevada. An announcement would be made this August.
But a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation spokeswoman said cutbacks are not expected to be implemented and that projections are for the water level to be 6 feet (1.8 meters) above the trigger point.
“We don’t expect that to happen right now,” spokeswoman Rose Davis said, referring to possible cutbacks. “Right now the probability of a shortage for 2016 is negligible.”
Davis said the reservoir’s water level could again fall to record lows in the next six to eight weeks, but that it would rebound by the end of December.
Lake Mead supplies water to roughly 40 million people and agricultural customers in Nevada, Arizona, Southern California and northern Mexico.
About 96 percent of the water in Lake Mead is from melted snow that falls in Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming, officials said.
Credit to Yahoo News
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