Lake Powell, the nation’s second-largest reservoir, dropped to 3,519.91 feet above sea level on Aug. 15, edging past its previous record low of 3,519.92 feet, set in April 2023. The reservoir now sits roughly 30 feet above the threshold at which the Glen Canyon Dam would stop generating hydroelectric power, a level federal officials have said could be reached without significant intervention.
The milestone follows a similar record low at Lake Mead earlier this month. Combined, the two reservoirs — which supply water and electricity to about 40 million people across seven Western states — now hold their lowest joint volume since 1957, before Lake Powell existed.
“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.”…