Lake Mead will take years to fill up after drought ends

Friday, June 13, 2003 | 9:14 a.m.

Water levels in Lake Mead and the Colorado River might not return to normal until 2010 even if winter snowfall is above average for the next several years, a Bureau of Reclamation official said Thursday.

Based on current drought conditions, there is only a one-in-four chance that the lake and river levels will rebound, said Terry Fulp, manager of the bureau's river operations group.

The prediction has prompted Southern Nevada water suppliers to schedule a public hearing for July that would raise water rates 10 percent to 39 percent beginning Aug. 1. The Las Vegas Valley Water District could also initiate a drought watch, which would bring increased conservation measures and water restrictions.

"I'm the gloom and doom guy," Fulp told the Lake Mead Water Quality Forum, meeting in Las Vegas. "I wish I had better news."

The Colorado River Basin is in the midst of the worst current drought in the United States, Fulp said. It could become the worst drought in more than 1,000 years if dry conditions persist, he said.

Last winter's snows fell mostly on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains, locking out the watershed that feeds the Colorado River.

The spring rains that fell from February through April did not contribute to the river, Fulp said.

"It is a grim picture," said forum chairman Tom Porta of the state's Bureau of Water Quality Standards.

The Bureau of Reclamation expects the lake to drop to 1,139 feet by the end of the year, Fulp said.

If the drought persists, Lake Mead could drop another 11 or 12 feet by next year, he said.

But the news is not all bad.

Droughts in the past 50 years have lasted four or five years. When the federal government built dams along the river in the last century, they were designed to cushion the Colorado's rise and fall through natural cycles, Fulp said.

"We still have a basin system that is 60 percent full," bureau spokesman Bob Walsh said after the meeting. "It's doing it's job."

Lake Mead normally fluctuates by between 6 and 8 feet a year when the river is running at its normal pace, Walsh said.

The problem is that water from the upper river basin is not filling Lake Powell, he said. Normally, at the end of summer, water from Lake Powell builds back up and replenishes Lake Mead, Walsh said.

"If we have another year of drought, it's going to put us pretty far down in that lake," Walsh said. "There's no replenishment of water coming in from upstream. "What we need come winter is a massive snowpack."