Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the US, has plummeted to its lowest water level since it was filled about 90 years ago, another sign of the crisis plaguing the Colorado River system.Water levels at the reservoir, which straddles the Arizona-Nevada border outside Las Vegas, hit 317.1m above sea level on Friday, according to federal data. That’s just below the record set on July 28 2022, according to the US Bureau of Reclamation.“It’s extremely significant and extremely concerning. You have three-quarters of the population of the Colorado River Basin, about 30-million people, who are directly affected by risks to Lake Mead,” said JB Hamby, chairperson of the Colorado River Board of California and a board member of the Imperial Irrigation District, the largest user of the river’s water.Hamby said it is vital for states that use Colorado River water to reduce water use.Drought and dry conditions have stretched along the length of the Colorado and are particularly intense at its source in the Rocky Mountains.Visitors to Hoover Dam and Lake Mead have expressed concern as falling water levels expose more of the surrounding rock.The decline at Lake Mead and Lake Powell has prompted the US Bureau of Reclamation to propose new measures aimed at averting a wider crisis on the Colorado… pic.twitter.com/S11iiWlEXR— Sky News (@SkyNews) August 8, 2026 Melting snow provides important water for the river. This past winter, however, saw the worst snowpack on record for the Colorado River Basin, adding more stress on farmers, industry, wildlife and hydropower producers, as well as the 40-million people across seven US states, tribal nations and Mexico who rely on the waterway.Years of overuse combined with drought and rising temperatures have been depleting Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the country’s second-largest reservoir. Both are the lowest they have been in nearly seven decades.To protect the strained system’s ability to produce hydropower, federal officials said on Thursday they will not release cool Lake Powell water from Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona to protect a threatened native fish, the humpback chub, whose habitat is between the reservoirs.Federal officials recently announced a short-term proposal to stave off a crisis in the beleaguered waterway, after states that rely on it — California, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Wyoming and Utah — failed to reach an agreement on how to share the dwindling resource in the long term.Tourists on the Hoover Dam look out at the bathtub ring of minerals that shows the former water levels of Lake Mead near Boulder City, Nevada, on August 7 2026. Picture: (Ty ONeil) A tourist takes a photo of Lake Mead near Boulder City, Nev., on Friday, Aug. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil) The federal proposal called for the Lower Basin states of Arizona, California and Nevada to take less water. The Bureau of Reclamation, which released the plan, said it was flexible: deeper cuts could happen in drier times, while states would have more time to collectively agree on how to manage the scarce resources.Severe drought in 2022 on Lake Mead, which is held back by the Hoover Dam, exposed human remains and forced water officials in Las Vegas to pump water from deeper within the reservoir to continue to supply water to millions of people.Levels at Lake Powell have dropped so much that it has become difficult to descend far enough to reach the water. Boat ramps have had to move, shut down or be built anew.Lake Mead and Lake Powell are not alone. Of the 54 western reservoirs tracked by the Bureau of Reclamation, nine recently recorded their lowest levels in the past three decades.Federal officials do not believe the record will stay where it is. According to modelling done in July, Lake Mead is forecast to continue dropping during much of the rest of the year.AP