16-05-2025
Speedboat re-emerges at Lake Mead, a reminder summer's dropping water levels
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Like a ghost of summers gone by, a speedboat sticking out of the bottom of Lake Mead is back to remind Las Vegas of what could be next for our water supply.
Protruding about 8 feet above the lake's surface, the boat still has about 14 feet to show. We last saw it in all its glory in August 2022, rising from the lakebed and earning names like 'Lake Mead monolith' and 'the vertical speedboat.' It became a landmark, or watermark, if you will.
Now, it's not in the public eye much. The National Park Service closed Government Wash to vehicle traffic last summer after campers turned into long-term residents and trash started to build up. Photos taken by boaters pop up occasionally on social media.
A report released today shows water levels will continue to drop at Lake Mead through the end of July, but only about 6 feet below where they are now. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's 24-month study shows the lake surface at 1,053.62 feet above sea level by the end of July before rebounding through February 2026, rising 8 feet to 1,061.30 feet.
The lake is at 1,059.56 feet as of noon Thursday.
Even if Lake Mead won't drop to its 2021 and 2022 levels this year, the news isn't uplifting.
Reclamation's projections today seem to defy reports that streamflow into Lake Powell is expected to be about 55% of average, even though snowpack levels reached a peak of 91% on April 8.
But looking further into the future, Lake Mead is expected to keep going lower in 2026.
Some of the lowest levels that show up in the projections:
1,047.80 — July 2026
1,046.87 — November 2026
1,048.40 — December 2026
1,047.40 — April 2027
Those figures, and particularly the December number, could have serious implications. In August, the Bureau of Reclamation uses Lake Mead's level to set water shortage restrictions that apply to Nevada, Arizona and California. Currently, we're under Tier 1 water restrictions. If Lake Mead is projected to be below 1,050 feet when Reclamation reports in August, states would lose some of their water allocations.
'We're not talking about dead pool this year,' John Berggren of Western Resource Advocates said earlier this week. Dead pool is at 895 feet, when water behind the dam drops lower than pipes used to let water out to flow downstream.
When we spoke with Berggren about a month ago, streamflow projections showed Lake Powell inflow at 67%, but it had dropped from 74% projected just two weeks earlier. Now, that number is 55%.
For Berggren, the statistics are most concerning because the federal government needs a plan when the current Colorado River guidelines expire. If a new plan isn't in place, rules will revert to a century-old document called the Colorado River Compact — commonly called 'The Law of the River.'
What we need, he said, is a plan that is robust enough to account for the reality of a Colorado River that simply has less water than it did when those rules were written 100 years ago. Even the most recent guidelines adopted in 2007 were woefully inadequate to deal with drought conditions that began in 2000 and don't appear to be ending anytime soon.
It's not a temporary problem, Berggren said. It demands a long-term fix.
About 90% of the water used in Southern Nevada comes from Lake Mead, sucked out through an intake at the bottom of the lake. The majority of the water that comes down the river into Lake Mead belongs to California, which has senior water rights under the Law of the River.
On July 27, 2022 — only about three years ago — Lake Mead reached its lowest point since it was filled in the 1930s, dropping to 1,041.71 feet. A wet winter in 2023 helped refill lakes Mead and Powell, the biggest and second-biggest reservoirs in the U.S., after they had dropped to about a fourth of their capacity. Now, Lake Mead is 32% full and Lake Powell is 33% full.
The speedboat has been almost like a gauge that tells everyone if the lake is rising or falling. It's a little easier to read than the 'bathtub ring' at Lake Mead that is now somewhere near 170 feet tall.
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