Poor Snowpack Bodes Ill for Drought-Stricken Las Vegas Area

Lake Mead’s water level probably will slip to drought alert status by the end of the year and could create an emergency water shortage by 2005, according to a Southern Nevada Water Authority official.

Deputy Chief Kay Brothers told board members that the snowpack on the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains isn’t deep enough to end the worst drought in more than a century.

Lake Mead, fed by the Colorado River and the source of southern Nevada’s drinking water, has dropped 60 feet in the last two years to its lowest level since 1972.

Much of the March snowstorm that dumped up to 7 feet of snow and paralyzed parts of Colorado missed the western slopes. Scientists expect the resulting runoff this year to be 62% of normal.

“We’ll be in emergency in a year or two if we don’t get normal or above runoff,” Brothers said after the meeting.

A National Weather Service official said Friday that it will take a few years of improved snowpack conditions before the Colorado River system can recover.

“In order for us to get out of the drought, we’re going to have to have substantial rains and snows in the western Rockies probably for three or four consecutive years,” said Kim Runk, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service.

About 8.2 million acre-feet of water will flow this year into Lake Mead, while 9.5 million acre-feet will be released to meet water demands downstream, Brothers said.

The difference of more than 1 million acre-feet will put the lake’s surface elevation at or below the 1,145-foot mark, which would trigger a drought alert.

An acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons, or enough water to meet the needs of an average family of five for a year.

The lake would have to drop an additional 20 feet, to the 1,125-foot mark, to create a drought emergency.

With Lake Mead’s surface currently at 1,151 feet and the reservoir at 64% of its capacity, the Las Vegas area is already under drought-watch conditions.

Under a plan adopted by the Southern Nevada Water Authority, golf courses will soon be restricted from using more than 7 acre-feet of water a year. If Las Vegas moves into a drought alert, it will force courses to cut annual use to 5.7 acre-feet.

The plan also calls for more of existing restrictions on daytime lawn watering from May through August.