Can the Hoover Dam fill Lake Mead?

Hoover Dam, a concrete-arch gravity dam, captures water from the Colorado River and fills Lake Mead. At capacity (1,221.4 feet above sea level), the lake is the nation's largest reservoir, able to contain 28.9 million acre-feet of water covering about 248 square miles.



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Key Points. Lake Mead has dropped by 70% due to droughts in the West and it will take many years to refill again, naturally.

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Although Lake Mead gradually began filling again after Lake Powell reached the minimum pool required for power generation in that reservoir in 1965, full pool in Lake Mead was not reached again until 1983.

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The Dam Future While the dam is expected to last for centuries, engineers predict the structure could last for more than 10,000 years, surpassing most remnants of human civilization if humans were to disappear from the earth.

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As crazy as it sounds, engineers say the idea is technically feasible. It would involve building a system of dams and pipelines to move the water uphill across multiple states over the Continental Divide. Gravity would then work in our favor to drop the water down to the Colorado River watershed.

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What happens if Lake Mead dries up forever? If Lake Mead were to run out of water, the Hoover Dam would no longer be able to generate power or provide water to surrounding cities and farms. The Colorado River would essentially stop flowing, and the Southwest would be in a major water crisis.

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The water levels for Lake Mead are projected to reach slightly over 1,065 feet by January 2024, according to the Bureau of Reclamation, in large part due to an extremely wet winter that eased the effects of the longstanding drought. In October 2022, the water levels were at a historic low, at roughly 1,046 feet.

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It causes catastrophic flooding, and much of the water runs off rather than soaking into the land or filling reservoirs. About 60% of the area still is in drought. It would actually take six more years of heavy rainfall in a row to refill the Lake Mead reservoir completely.

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“Although every drop counts, the reality is that the rain we received from Tropical Storm Hilary and runoff into the tributaries that enter Lake Mead as well as reduced releases from Hoover Dam — due to a decrease in downstream demand — has had some minor impact on the lake's elevation,” according to U.S. Bureau of ...

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“Although every drop counts, the reality is that the rain we received from Tropical Storm Hilary and runoff into the tributaries that enter Lake Mead as well as reduced releases from Hoover Dam — due to a decrease in downstream demand — has had some minor impact on the lake's elevation,” according to U.S. Bureau of ...

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Record snowfall in the West wasn't enough to alleviate drought impacting Lake Mead. The record snowfall in the West wasn't enough to permanently alter the course of the drought impacting Lake Mead. FOX Weather's Robert Ray reports on the ongoing water issues and the Colorado River.

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The Lake Mead problem could be resolved by draining Lake Powell and storing the water in Lake Mead. More than 5% of the water in the Colorado River evaporates off the surface of Lake Powell - which never should have been built.

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Electricity would not just be the only thing lost. Without Lake Mead, Las Vegas would lose access to 90 percent of its water sources. If Lake Mead were to reach dead pool, it would technically still be able to supply drinking water to Las Vegas. But there will not be enough water for agricultural activities.

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