We're living in a mega drought
and that's not hyperbole.
The people who love America's second
largest man made reservoir want to
do all they can to save Lake Powell.
Water is the lifeblood of the southwest.
One. Look at Lake Powell and
you can see what's wrong.
We called it the bathtub ring.
You can see the top of the white behind me.
That's when the lake is full.
Brian Hill, general manager
of Page Utility Enterprises,
says the lake is down to 38% capacity.
There's 30 million people that rely on this.
What's behind us here?
The Western states are experiencing.
An exceptional drought classified as
a deformed that creates widespread
crop and pasture failures,
increased fire risk and shortages that
could disrupt the flow of water to your home.
Low water levels at Lake Powell
have revealed several shipwrecks,
and the shoreline is changing.
A year ago,
this beach didn't exist and these
campers would have been underwater.
So where did the water go?
To explain, we need to head from
the bottom of Lake Powell to
the top of the Rocky Mountains.
The reservoir depends on Rocky Mountain
runoff that flows down the Colorado River,
but scientists say that
we're living in the driest.
22 year period in centuries we
need more rain and snowfall,
which leads us back to the
bathtub ring and the story.
The discoloration of these rocks tells
from the early 80s to a year ago,
Lake Powell dropped 120 feet,
but in the last year alone the lake
dropped an additional 30 feet.
It's just not producing enough
water were at the rate that we are
taking it out of. Keegan Murphy
works for a kayaking company.
Where was the water line a year ago we would
be underwater. Right now standing
right now we would be underwater. This
is your first time back to
Lake Powell in five years.
And what do you think?
To me, it's devastating to see at this low.
It really is shocking to see just
how low the water levels really are.
Tim Maroney is a longtime late goer.
His dad, Tom, worked at the
dam for 18 years and offers.
These words to the West Coast.
I'm hopeful that they can do more
on the way of water conservation.
More wires going out than coming
in Malcolm Berghes been fishing
this lake his whole life.
Do you think that maybe people on
the West Coast are using more water
than they should? Yeah, basically
the Glen Canyon Dam is capable of
taking water all the way to the brim
about where those cars are parked,
but they haven't received water
like that since 1983 across.
The southwest most scientists
agree the exceptional drought
is tide to climate change.
Hot weather is certainly not helping
the situation. It's 106 degrees
today, which is 2 degrees
cooler than yesterday.
Word about a cups worth of bottled
drinking water on the sidewalk and watched
it evaporate in less than 3 minutes.
Heat that intense steals
moisture from the soil.
Agriculture uses a lot of water.
Let's face it, we grow a lot of
food down around the Yuma area along
with an increased wildfire risk.
Farmers are losing crops.
Could food prices go up?
Or potentially? I think they could.
Could this affect the economy?
I think so. A reduction of water
flowing through the Glen Canyon.
Means a reduction of power
generated to the Southwest,
New Mexico, Colorado, Utah,
Nevada, California, and Arizona.
Lake Powell is projected to drop to its
lowest level since it was filled in the 60s,
and that's water.
Seven states have to share.
Try to conserve water,
you know,
please for everybody because it's
just going to get worse in the
rate we're dropping, this lakes
could not gonna exist in 10 years.
And then what do we do?
Something's going to have
to change. Hill says either more
rain and snow have to fall or
people have to use less water.
I live in San Diego, family of four
showering everyday green lawn out front.
What changes can I make?
Perhaps the green lawn may have to go.
The desert southwest is a
beautiful place to live,
but it's just that, a desert.
I think this should be on everybody's mind.
We're going to have to be
smarter with her water.
This is going to be a very difficult thing
to buy our way out at the central banks.
And print money.
You can't print water at Lake Powell.
Jeff Silverman.