Low-Water Alert Issued for Lake Mead

Federal park officials have issued safety warnings to the more than 150,000 boaters and swimmers expected at drought-lowered Lake Mead during the Memorial Day weekend.

“There are a lot more obstacles, and things that used to be obstacles are now shoreline,” said Kay Rohde, the National Park Service’s chief of interpretation for the Lake Mead National Recreation Area.

When full, the nation’s largest man-made reservoir has 700 miles of shoreline. In the fifth year of a Western drought, the lake has about 500 miles of shore and a white mineral ring showing high-water marks.

The water level at Lake Mead on Friday was 1,130 feet above sea level, its lowest point since 1968, and 13 feet below a year ago.

Boat ramps and marinas were designed for a lake level of between 1,180 feet and 1,220 feet, the reservoir’s capacity. Many have been modified during the ongoing Western drought. Some have been closed.

Memorial Day weekend is usually the busiest of the year at the lake, formed by Hoover Dam on the Colorado River, about 30 miles east of Las Vegas. Nearly 188,000 people and 5,000 boats used the lake last Memorial Day weekend, officials said.

Seven people have died at the Lake Mead recreation area this year, including three drownings this month.