As Lake Mead's Water Levels Hit Historic Lows, Bodies Keep Surfacing

BOULDER CITY, NV — Another set of human remains have been found at Lake Mead National Recreational Area — the third set of remains found in as many months — as climate change and drought send water levels plummeting to historic lows.

A witness reported the remains at Swim Beach around 4:30 p.m. Monday, the National Park Service said in a news release. Park rangers set a perimeter to recover the remains at the reservoir, located about 40 miles east of Las Vegas.

The Clark County Medical Examiner will try to determine the cause of death.

The investigation remains ongoing. Further details weren't immediately available, but video obtained by KVVU-TV showed the remains being carried in a black body bag.

The finding comes as water at Lake Mead records historically low levels, falling to less than 150 feet away from "dead pool," according to NBC News.

Lake Mead's water levels have dropped by about 170 feet in the last two decades due to drought and climate change. The alarming drop prompted the Secretary of the Interior to issue the first-ever shortage declaration to reduce the amount of water available to Nevada and other water users.

The federal government projected a high likelihood that Lake Mead's water levels will continue falling.

On July 6, the parks service said a woman's body was found near the Boulder Islands on Lake Mead. She had been missing six days and no foul play was suspected.

On May 7, human skeletal remains were found at Callville Bay in Boulder City.

That discovery came less than a week after authorities on May 1 found the body of a person in a corroded barrel that became exposed due to falling water levels.

"It started out as just a normal day at the lake, and that is just the craziest thing I have seen at Lake Mead," Las Vegas resident Daniel Ruiz, who was present when the body was found, told KVVU at the time.

The remains likely dated to the 1970s or '80s due to the shoes he was wearing, and police said the man was shot. A second — empty — barrel was found nearby a few days later.

“There’s no telling what we’ll find in Lake Mead,” former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman told The Associated Press in May. “It’s not a bad place to dump a body.”

Michael Green, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas history professor, told AP at the time he expects more "interesting things" will surface if the lake's water levels fall much further.

“I wouldn’t bet the mortgage that we’re going to solve who killed [gangster] Bugsy Siegel,” Green said. “But I would be willing to bet there are going to be a few more bodies."