Lake Powell, the second-largest reservoir in the U.S., is nearing critically low water elevation levels, the latest data shows.
As of Monday, water levels at Lake Powell measured at 3,524.3 feet above sea level, according to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation tracker.
Minimum, or "dead," power pool -- in which the water is too low to spin the hydroelectric turbines and can no longer produce hydropower -- starts at 3,490 feet of elevation, Peter Soeth, public affairs lead at the Bureau of Reclamation, told ABC News. Elevation at Lake Powell is currently about 34 feet above the minimum power pool.
Since the early 1960s, when Lake Powell initially was created by the completion of Glen Canyon Dam, the reservoir has never been lower than 5.26 million acre feet in live storage -- or the water that can flow by gravity from the reservoir through the various tubes and tunnels that can be used for reservoir release, Jack Schmidt, director of the Center for Colorado River Studies at Utah State University, told ABC News.
Lake Powell currently has about 5.52 million acre-feet of large storage and has lost about 4,800 acre-feet of water per day since June 1, Schmidt said.
Reservoir operations can get "very complicated" once elevation drops below 3,500 feet and live storage drops below 4.3 million acre-feet, Schmidt said. At that point, the Bureau of Reclamation would "be seriously concerned," he added.
The reservoir could reach a "dead pool" when its elevation drops to 3,370 feet, at which point water can no longer flow past Glen Canyon Dam by gravity.
In a dead pool, about 240 feet of water would be trapped at the bottom of the canyon, unable to flow to millions of people who rely on it in Arizona, California and Nevada, the Lake Powell Chronicle reported.
Full pool elevation is at 3,700 feet, according to the Lake Powell Water Database.
The Colorado River Basin is experiencing the impacts from the lowest snowpack on record, Soeth said.
Earlier this year, hydrology experts began warning that water levels in the Colorado River Basin would approach critically low levels due to the lack of snowpack over the winter months.
More than two-thirds of the West remains in drought, with much of the Colorado River Basin experiencing severe to extreme conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
There could be some short-term relief in the near future. Above-average precipitation is favored across much of the West, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center. Monsoon season and an intensifying El Niño are also underway and could bring more chances for rain to the region.
However, any additional precipitation will not offset the long-term factors driving water shortages like prolonged drought conditions and historically low seasonal snowpack, according to experts.
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