The valve has been in operation since 1971, but can no longer pump water, according to the Southern Nevada Water Authority, which is responsible for managing the water resources of 2.2 million people in Southern Nevada, including Las Vegas. . Across the West, extreme drought is already rampant this year and the summer heat has not even reached yet. “This is a crisis. This is unprecedented,” said Adel Hagekhalil, general manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. “We have never done anything like this before and because we have never seen such a situation before. We do not have enough water to meet the normal requirements for the six million people living in the areas that depend on the State Water Project.” At Lake Mead, photos taken Monday show the largest of the body’s three intake valves high and dry above the water line. “When the lake reached 1,060 feet (feet above sea level), then you could start to see the top of the number one intake,” said Bronson Mack, public relations officer for the Southern Nevada Water Authority. Lake Mead reached 1,060 feet above sea level on April 4 and is at 1,055 feet as of Wednesday, he said. As a result, the water authority started operating a new pumping station on a low lake for the first time – a valve located deeper in the bottom of Lake Mead. The station, which began construction in 2015 and was completed in 2020, is capable of supplying water to the lake at a much lower level and was built to protect the area’s water resources in the light of drought exacerbations. “There was no impact on the company’s ability to supply water,” Mack said. “Customers did not notice anything. It was a smooth transition.” Water flowing down the Colorado River fills Lake Mead and Lake Powell – another critical reservoir in the West – and the river system supports more than 40 million people living in seven western states and Mexico. Both reservoirs provide drinking water and irrigation to many communities throughout the area, including farms, ranches, and indigenous communities. The federal government declared a water shortage on the Colorado River for the first time last summer. The shortage prompted mandatory cuts in water consumption for the southwestern states, which began in January. And in March, Lake Powell fell below a critical threshold that threatens the Glen Canyon Dam’s capacity to generate energy. The West is in the worst drought in centuries, scientists said on Monday. A study published in February found that the period from 2000 to 2021 was the driest for the region in 1,200 years. The man-made climate crisis has exacerbated the severe drought in the West by 72%, the study notes. “We’re kind of in an uncharted area, socially and economically,” Justin Mankin, an assistant professor of geography at Dartmouth College and co-chair of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Drought National Team, told CNN in March. This story has been updated with additional information. CNN’s Rachel Ramirez contributed to this report.
