San Carlos Lake’s dry-up is earliest ever as water levels plummet
by Aaron Dorman | Casa Grande Dispatch
While the San Carlos Irrigation and Drainage District has been telling farmers for months now to plan for drought conditions, recent water shortages in San Carlos Lake have nevertheless reached unprecedented low levels.
On April 13, the lake was down to 55 acre-feet — the lake’s regular capacity of 19,500 acre-feet, once seen as an average, could become rare as the Gila River is fed less and less by melting snows from the Black Range in New Mexico.
According to Shane Lindstrom, general manager for SCIDD, while the water levels have been low before, but this is the earliest in the year the lake has ever gone effectively dry.
