Lake Powell

Water levels in Lake Powell are at record lows as the Colorado River is strained by climate change and steady demand.

This year, Lake Powell will get a big boost from melting snow. The nation’s second-largest reservoir on the Colorado River needed the water because it was at a record low earlier this year.

The nation's second-largest reservoir has been shrinking as drought and steady demand strain the Colorado River. Lake Powell water levels are low, but canyons and ecosystems are emerging.

Water levels in Lake Powell, the nation’s second-largest reservoir on the Colorado River, are at a record low. To keep it from declining further, federal officials are ready to spend tens of millions of dollars to incentivize farmers and other water users in the river’s upper basin to conserve.

Go on a boat tour of Lake Powell as drought, climate change and overuse drop the water level dramatically.

Since Glen Canyon Dam was commissioned in 1964 and it first began filling, Lake Powell has never been like it is right now, at just 27% of its capacity. It’s threatening to dip below the minimum elevation needed to produce hydropower within the next year. A string of dry winters could push it to dead pool status.

As water levels in Lake Powell keep dropping, activists say Glen Canyon Dam is in need of upgrades to its plumbing so it can keep sending water downstream.

States in the Upper Colorado River Basin are not ready to commit to federal water conservation targets, but are seeking to revive a conservation program first launched in 2014.