A witness reported discovering human remains at Swim Beach, at the western end of the lake, on Monday afternoon, the National Park Service said in a statement. No other information was provided. It was unclear how long the remains had been in the lake or how they were discovered. The Clark County Medical Examiner will determine the cause of death, officials said. The National Park Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. Officials were later seen carrying the remains in a black bag, according to video from Fox 5, a local news channel. While it was unclear whether the drop in water levels in the lake led to Monday’s discovery, they have also played a role in other discoveries this year. In early May, the remains of a person killed about 40 years ago were found in a metal barrel on the shore of the lake. Weeks later, another set of remains was found half-buried in the sand. Lake Mead, about 40 miles east of Las Vegas, is the largest man-made reservoir in the United States, formed by the construction of the Hoover Dam in the 1930s. The lake is also a critical source of water for 25 million people in seven states, including some of the largest agricultural valleys in the country. Last summer, the federal government declared a water shortage in the lake for the first time, causing water outages that mostly affected Arizona farmers at the time. In June, the Bureau of Reclamation, which oversees water and power in the West, issued an emergency request to states to propose immediate cuts by 2023 to prevent further depletion of reservoirs. New images, taken by NASA in 2000 and 2022 and released this month, show the lake’s deteriorating condition, as seen by the so-called bathtub ring, the remains of salts and minerals left behind on the canyon walls by receding water. The images show the driest two-decade period since 800 AD, according to a recent analysis of tree-ring data. Human-caused global warming played a role in the continuation of the current drought, the researchers said, adding that it has continued despite periods of good rainfall over the past 20 years. One reason for this may be that rising temperatures, more than rain and snow conditions, are causing this drought.
