The level of water at the country’s second-largest reservoir has hit a record level, and not one that you’d want to reach.
Lake Powell measured at 3,519.91 feet on Saturday, lower than its previous record of 3,519.92 feet set in April 2023, CNN reported.
Officials said the daily water level is “provisional and subject to revision” and could change because of the narrow margin, according to ABC News.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said the lake is about 20 feet lower than it was at the start of 2026, The Associated Press reported.
There’s only about 30 feet until it reaches the level where the turbines cannot produce hydroelectric power, something that the federal government had warned about in April, saying that without a “major intervention” it could happen by the end of the year.
Lake Mead, the largest reservoir, hit a record low about two weeks ago, ABC News reported.
“If you add the two of these reservoirs together, the last time the joint contents were this low was in 1957, before there even was a Lake Powell. These are truly unprecedented,” Jack Schmidt, a senior research scientist and the director of the Center for Colorado River Studies at Utah State University, told ABC News. “We are in completely new territory.”
In addition to potentially affecting power generation, the tourist industry has also been impacted, with marinas either closing or moving boat ramps and marinas relocating to deeper waters, the AP reported.
Both Lake Mead and Lake Powell provide water for Southern California, Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico using water from the Colorado River.
CNN attributes the issue affecting the Colorado River and both reservoirs to not only climate change but also years of heavy water use, which has caused the waterway to shrink by about 20% since 2000.
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