The storms that swept across the Western U.S. this winter dropped so much water that less than one-quarter of the nation’s driest state remains in drought.
Lake Mead
Forecasters expect the Colorado River to see some of its highest flows in more than a decade as snow melts off the Rockies this spring and summer.
“Disastrous conditions have reshaped Lake Mead National Recreation Area’s one and a half million acres of incredible landscapes and slowly depleted the largest reservoir in the United States,” the senators wrote in a letter to the National Park Service.
The Southern Nevada Water Authority is evaluating whether changes need to be made to its lowest intake straw in order to protect water quality as Lake Mead continues to shrink.
A National Park Service spokesman says it is not possible to say why visitors to Lake Mead National Recreation Area dropped off without further research.