Lake Powell hits lowest summer level ever, raising risk of ‘dead pool’
Lake Powell, a massive Colorado River reservoir that generates electricity for millions of homes in the West the emptiest ever We are entering the hottest period of summer. And the worst is still to come.
Although lake levels have dropped briefly in recent years, these low water levels came in the spring before snowmelt refilled the lake. This filling did not occur at all this year.
As a result, Lake Powell will fall into the “minimum power pool” next spring, according to newly released federal projections. If the water level drops below this, Glen Canyon Dam will stop producing electricity.
“This outcome is not a reflection of recent drought response actions, but rather a stark reminder that the Colorado River remains vulnerable,” Federal said. The Bureau of Reclamation wrote its June 15 forecast.
If water levels drop further, the Colorado River’s flow through the Grand Canyon, known as the “dead pool,” could be stopped, creating an environmental disaster. This is generally considered an unlikely scenario by experts because federal managers will likely create new outlets at the dam before that happens.
The amount of water in the reservoir is slowly decreasing as long-term climate change makes the West hotter and drier. Today, 23.28% of the lake is full. The last time it was completely filled was in 1983.
Federal water managers are already drawing water from other reservoirs in Colorado and Wyoming to slow Lake Powell’s decline. But their forecasts also show that Lake Powell’s water level will continue to drop until late next spring, when next winter’s snow begins to melt.
A drop in rainfall caused by the “Super El Niño” weather pattern in the Pacific Ocean could help, but water experts say it won’t reverse long-term trends.
Low water levels in Lake Powell are clearly visible in this February 2026 image showing the tip of a floating dock dangling from a cliff at Antelope Marina in Page, Arizona. Workers cut a new path through solid rock towards the water.
The lake level usually bottoms out each spring before snowmelt begins to refill in early summer. But this year’s winter was disastrously dry, and water experts say water releases from smaller reservoirs upriver will be needed to prevent the lake from sinking below the power pool level.
Lake managers have begun expanding boat ramps in preparation for continued lows, and workers recently floated the entire Bullfrog Marina across the lake into deeper water at Halls Crossing in Utah. The area attracts an estimated 4 million recreational visitors annually for the Lake Houseboat, water skiing and canoeing, scenic side canyons, as well as the Rainbow Bridge rock arch.
Tourism in Page, Ariz., the small city next to the dam, has taken a hit due to news of lake levels, city spokesman Adam Geller said. He said it was unclear how much was directly attributable to lake levels, given recent high gas prices and a slowdown in international tourism, but city hotel revenue was down 6% from this time last year.
Geller added that city workers are developing a new low-level drinking water connection to provide water to the city’s approximately 7,300 residents, hotels, businesses and golf course as lake levels drop.
Page was built in the 1960s as a staging area for dam construction, and its fate is closely tied to the lake and the Colorado River, including the internationally famous Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe Bend. Geller said the lake still has more than 1,000 miles of shoreline to explore, and visitors typically do so by houseboat.
“This community has a great history of adapting,” Geller said. “The dam itself is a story of resilience. It was never built to withstand such a drought…”
City leaders hope El Niño will deliver a wet fall and snowy winter, which will raise the lake’s level and give more time to find longer-term solutions, Geller said.
“If we get that snow mass, maybe we’ll be out of trouble for a while,” he said.
Low water levels are also increasing tensions between the seven states that jointly manage the Colorado River — Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — and some Native American tribes. California gets the lion’s share of water from the river, even in dry years.
The governors of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming warned in an April 9 letter to their riverine counterparts that using water from their small reservoirs to support Lake Powell would put jobs and tourism in their states at risk. Governors of so-called “Upper Basin” states have long argued that farmers in California and Arizona should use less water, even if they have the legal right to do so.
Federal water managers begin partially draining reservoirs – Including Wyoming’s Flaming Gorge – To maintain sufficient water in Lake Powell to generate electricity. Water leaving Lake Powell is captured in Lake Mead outside Las Vegas, where it provides electricity, irrigation and drinking water to tens of millions of people, including California’s vital agricultural industry.
“Years like this remind us that proper water storage helps us survive dry years and that we need to be prepared not just for this year but for future dry and average years as well,” Upper Basin managers wrote. “We recognize the need to live within available supply and expect other communities to do the same.”
The 710-foot-tall Glen Canyon Dam, which impounds the Colorado River, is a major source of hydroelectric power in the region, producing 1,320 megawatts of energy to serve more than 1 million homes in the Southwest, but the amount of energy the dam produces is declining with water levels in Lake Powell. The white “tub ring” marks the highest level the lake has ever reached.
Some conservation groups, particularly in California and Arizona, are trying to drastically change the types of crops they grow and where they grow them. Farmers pay to use Colorado River water, and because that water has historically been so cheap, they have used large amounts to grow thirsty crops like alfalfa in desert regions.
Federal water managers are trying to get seven states to agree on a plan to reduce water use. Under the Biden administration, federal taxpayers have paid billions of dollars to farmers to stop planting crops, but that is considered a short-term solution that is too expensive to maintain indefinitely.
Over the last 25 years, the average amount of water in the Colorado River has been 20% lower than in the period 1900-2000. According to California state officials.
With supply shrinking, states continue to bicker. A certain amount of water must constantly flow through Lake Powell and Lake Mead to produce energy for millions of households and businesses. Mexican and Native American tribes also have water use rights and a say in its management.
The states were unable to find an acceptable compromise. That puts the entire system at risk of collapse, said Aaron Weiss, executive director of the nonpartisan Center on Western Priorities. The nonpartisan center advocates for increased soil and water conservation across the West.
In addition to limiting lawn irritation and paying farmers to use less water, some proposals call for piping water from the Mississippi River to Arizona, transporting icebergs from the polar regions or building nuclear-powered desalination plants off the coast of California.
Various environmental groups have also suggested removing or skipping the Glen Canyon Dam altogether, dumping what’s left into Lake Mead and implementing stricter water conservation measures.
“We’re now at the point where we’ve seen this coming for 20 years, and it’s going to be both really hard and really urgent,” Weiss said. “Whatever the solutions are, they will need to happen quickly.”
This article first appeared on USA TODAY: Why is Lake Powell at risk of a ‘dead pool’ as levels drop?
