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America’s largest reservoir remains in peril

One of California’s largest suppliers of drinking water in neighboring Nevada was at a troublingly low level yet again at the end of 2025. Data from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation shows that the water elevation at Lake Mead’s Hoover Dam was 1,062.24 feet at the end of December. That’s the lowest it’s been during this time of the year since 2022, when it was 1,044.82 feet. Before that, levels were the lowest in 1936, when the region experienced a severe drought.

Lake Mead stored 8.59 million acre-feet of water on Dec. 31, according to USBR data. The lake can store about 26 million acre-feet of water, meaning it was only about 33% full at the end of the year.

The lake supplies water to millions of people in California, Arizona, Nevada and Mexico. In August, declining water levels caused officials to reduce its allotments of water in Arizona, Nevada and Mexico. USBR referred to the conditions shaping the lake’s water levels as a time of “unprecedented drought.”

Water levels at Hoover Dam stayed below 1,070 feet for the entirety of 2025. Levels were at their highest in February, at 1,068.18 feet, and at their lowest in July, at 1,054.14 feet. Water levels were at 1,063.29 feet at the end of December 2024.

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