00:00Millions of visitors brave the heat every summer to see this engineering marvel.
00:05The Hoover Dam holding back Lake Mead.
00:07I expected a lot more water. It's a lot lower than I anticipated.
00:11Lake Mead hit an all-time high back in 1983.
00:15It's fallen roughly 180 feet since, dropping to a record low this summer.
00:20This was kind of heartbreaking just to see how low the lake has gotten.
00:24This reservoir has been hit hard by years of drought and relentless heat.
00:28A weak winter snowpack in the Rockies that feeds the Colorado River.
00:32And growing cities, farms, and industry pulling from the same shrinking supply.
00:37All made worse by a warming climate.
00:40When you're up close, you're like, wow, this is really significant.
00:44You could see just how far the water level has dropped here since 2002.
00:49America's largest reservoir supplies more than 40 million people
00:52and 5.5 million acres of farmland with water.
00:56Now, there's a battle in court over which states could face the biggest water cutbacks in the future.
01:02There is a lot less water that's available than certainly the drafters of that compact had predicted.
01:10Seven states, 30 Native American tribes, and parts of Mexico
01:14all depend on water from the Colorado River and Lake Mead, and all could face cuts.
01:20With the decades-old rules expiring, the federal government has stepped in with its own plan.
01:25And now, the dispute is headed to court.
01:27Litigation won't create more water.
01:2917 massive generators produce hydropower for more than a million people across three states.
01:35If the water level drops just a few feet below where it sits right now,
01:40roughly 70% of that generating capacity could go offline.
01:44If it drops another 80 feet, every turbine would stop spinning.
01:48It's critically important that everyone really start taking an interest
01:53in how their water is being used in their local community.
01:56For AccuWeather, I'm Bill Waddell.
Comments