Water levels at Lake Mead expected to rise a total of 15 feet by end of year

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) - More water is slowly flowing into Lake Mead. And it’s all thanks to the wet winter the area had this year and the water that is coming in from Lake Powell.

Millions of people living in the Las Vegas Valley depend on the water at Lake Mead, and the lake levels continuing to rise means good news for those water users.

“Where we are going to end up at the end of the year means less shortage cuts happen next year potentially,” said Noe Santos, river operations manager with the Bureau of Reclamation.

Santos said this also means better access for boaters and swimmers.

“Since 2018, 2019 we saw quite a few closures of boat ramps around the lake and it really damages people’s access to the water on the weekends,” Santos said.

According to Santos, Lake Mead is expected to rise another 6 feet over the next two months, totaling 15 feet by the end of this year.

“It is quite remarkable how beneficial this year has been with rainfall and also the snowpack in the mountains,” said Santos.

Santos added 80% of the additional water comes from Lake Powell, a reservoir in Utah and Arizona.

“They were able to release additional water downstream, more so than they would have been able to at the beginning of the year, because of the additional snowpack,” said Santos.

To keep lake levels rising, Santos said we need to keep having the wet winters of more rain and snowpack.

It could be another five to six years before we see Lake Mead reach normal levels, which is above 1,100 feet.

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