Decades of Drought Have Caused Arizona’s Lake Powell to Shrinks to Its Lowest Level Ever

Arizona’s Lake Powell is shrinking. The once-full body of water is now only at 32 percent.

Bob Martin, from the US Bureau of Reclamation spoke to KPHO meteorologist April Warnecke and said that years of drought had depleted the lake.

“We've only received about 30 percent of what normally would've flowed into Lake Powell this year,” he said.

“It's getting serious, and after 21 years of drought, it's easy to get calloused to that news headline, but as we get further into the drought, the more serious it becomes for everybody.”

In July alone, the lake dropped six inches and now sits at the lowest level ever recorded. It’s 52 feet lower than it was a year ago.

To help lake levels, the Bureau of Reclamation is releasing water from sources upstream. That will raise the lake by three feet. But it’s not a permanent solution.

The lake’s long-term survival depends on two key factors: conserving water regionally and combating human-caused climate change.

“That affects everyone living in the west, from farmers, to recreators, to turning on the tap in your home,” Martin adds. “It's gonna take conservation, it's going to take answering some tough questions, and everybody who lives in the west has a piece of this.”

“So we all have to contribute to it, the solution. If we don't make the decisions,” he adds, “Mother Nature is going to force us to make those hard decisions.”

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