By Josh Lederman and Kailani Koenig - NBC News
BOULDER CITY, Nevada - The federal government declared an unprecedented water shortage in the Colorado River and Lake Mead on Monday, causing water outages and opening a new chapter in the increasingly severe drought suffering in the West. .
Colorado River water supplies for Arizona, Nevada and parts of Mexico will be reduced beginning in January after the United States Office of Recovery, an agency of the Department of the Interior, first issued a formal declaration of shortages in the River.
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Although the first round of cuts will primarily affect farmers, and will not reach cities and households any time soon, further falls in Lake Mead's water level can lead to much more severe supply cuts than ultimately They could also affect cities like Phoenix, Las Vegas and Tucson, in Arizona, and parts of California.
"Like much of the West and our connected watersheds, the
Colorado
River
faces increasingly rapid and unprecedented challenges
,
"
said Tanya Trujillo, undersecretary of the Interior.
Scientists say a combination of weather patterns and human-caused climate change is fueling the historic drought and declining water levels in Lake Mead and throughout the Colorado River system.
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Temperatures at Lake Mead reached 106 degrees Fahrenheit (41 degrees Celsius) on Monday, when some boaters and swimmers cooled off in the lake, the country's largest reservoir.
Above them could be seen a high shoreline crisscrossed with wide white stripes, rings that formed only a couple of decades ago, when water levels were about 100 feet higher.
A buoy at Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Friday, Aug. 13, 2021, near Boulder City, Nevada.AP Photo / John Locher
John Entsminger, administrator of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, said his region will easily be able to absorb the initial cuts due to steps taken to reduce water demand, including the crackdown on water-intensive landscaping.
The situation was "extremely dire but not apocalyptic," according to Entsminger.
"We have a worst-case plan right now," Entsminger said.
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The water shortage declaration had been anticipated in May, when Lake Mead fell below 1,075 feet, the trigger point for Tier 1 water outages, according to the agreement between states that depend on Colorado River water. .
The Reclamation Office predicted Monday that in January, when the cuts go into effect, the water level will be at 1,066 feet.
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Aug. 13, 202102: 43
Lake Mead, located just above the Hoover Dam, feeds the lower Colorado River basin, part of a longer Colorado River system that provides water to 40 million people and electricity to millions through hydroelectric dams that they control the flow of the river.
Under Tier 1 cuts,
Arizona will face the largest reduction
: 512,000 acre-feet, or about one-fifth of the Colorado River state allocation and about 8% of Arizona's water supply.
Farmers who depend on canal water from the Central Arizona Project will be the most directly affected, local authorities have warned.
A sign warns of low water levels on a boat ramp on Lake Mead, Friday, Aug. 13, 2021.AP Photo / John Locher
At a farmers market outside of Las Vegas, farmer Lea Bales sheltered under a tent from the harsh heat as she sold pumpkins, melons and carrots from her farm in Pahrump, Nevada, the last crop of the season before the fall season.
He was concerned that future water outages would make his lifestyle unsustainable.
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"He probably wouldn't have a farm," Bales said.
"Either that or it would just be done on a small scale, like for personal use. Because you need a lot of water to grow a lot of vegetables," he explained.
