California on Track for Lowest Lake Mead Use in 75 Years

Lake Mead may be facing historic shortages, but officials from the Colorado River state that uses the most water are celebrating unprecedented water savings.

At a briefing for reporters at Tuesday’s Colorado River Water Users Association conference at Caesars Palace, leaders from California’s biggest water districts said the state is on track to use 3.76 million acre-feet this year. That’s about 1.2 trillion gallons — the smallest amount of water from the river since 1949, despite explosive population growth.