Levels should be 18 feet higher after wet winter
Brandon Loomis
Arizona Republic
Water levels at Lake Mead are rebounding after a rare wet and snowy winter in the Colorado River’s headwaters and should start 2024 nearly 18 feet higher than last January, government forecasters said Tuesday.
In years past, Arizona water users might have celebrated by diverting more river water into their canals and irrigating more land, because that elevation behind Hoover Dam eases the state’s mandatory shortage under federal guidelines negotiated in 2007.
Instead, with an eye toward arresting the reservoir’s long-term drying trend and avoiding disaster if drought roars back this winter, federal officials are paying tribes, farmers and cities to leave more water behind.
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“I anticipate even less water coming out of Lake Mead,” Arizona Department of Water Resources Director Tom Buschatzke said.
Lake Mead’s Jan. 1 water level is projected to reach more than 1,065 feet above sea level, and so on Tuesday, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said it would operate the river and its reservoirs under Level 1 shortage conditions in 2024, a step down from the Level 2 conditions imposed in 2023. Even so, next year’s releases from Lake Mead to downstream users would be the lowest in 30 years, and about 1.5 million acre-feet lower than in an average year.
That’s because Arizona joined California and Nevada in proposing new cuts of 3 million acre-feet over the next three years, and federal programs funded under the Inflation Reduction Act are expected to reward users for saving 360,000 acre-feet of it next year in Arizona alone.
