Lake Mead is inches away from setting a grim new milestone. Amid a megadrought and ongoing struggles over how to allocate the Colorado River’s dwindling water supply, the lake’s surface now sits at just 1,040.84 feet above sea level. That’s less than four inches away from a low-water record first set in July 2022.
As the lake shrinks, previously hidden hazards are reappearing from the depths, creating new risks for boaters and prompting the National Park Service to ask for the public’s help in reporting them.
Before it was a reservoir, the land east of Las Vegas was instead a collection of mountains, buttes and other geological features typical of the desert southwest. When construction on the Hoover Dam was completed in 1936, the Colorado River backed up to create Lake Mead, drowning the landscape beneath the largest reservoir in the United States. When it’s full, the lake can hold 9.3 trillion gallons of water.
Over the last 90 years, however, heavy water usage and persistent drought have drastically lowered the amount of water contained in the lake. Today, Lake Mead holds about 27% of its historic capacity, and its shoreline has dropped by more than 188 feet. Bronson Mack, the outreach manager with the Southern Nevada Water Authority, previously told KVVU-TV that Lake Mead could drop another 16 or more feet before the end of the year…