Lake Mead Nears ‘Dead Pool,’ Putting Water, Power, and Farms at Risk in Nevada, Arizona, and California

Lake Mead, the massive reservoir formed by Hoover Dam on the Colorado River, is still above “dead pool,” the point at which water levels are too low to keep flowing downstream. But the shrinking buffer is becoming a bigger concern for water managers across the Southwest, WorldAtlas reported.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said the dead pool level begins at 895 feet. Lake Mead still sits about 150 feet above that point, but federal forecasters expect the water to keep dropping through 2026 and 2027.