Lake Havasu is a reservoir on the Colorado River that supplies water to the Colorado River Aqueduct and Central Arizona Project. It is located at the California/Arizona border, approximately 150 miles southeast of Las Vegas, Nevada and 30 miles southeast of Needles, California.

Formation

The reservoir is created by Parker Dam, the world’s deepest dam with 235 of its 320 feet below the riverbed. It was built in 1938 on the California side of the border along the Colorado River. The dam sits above its own power plant, which has half its generated electricity helping pump water from Lake Havasu through the Colorado River Aqueduct to Riverside’s Lake Mathews. 

Function

In addition to providing water to the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the lake uses the 336-mile Central Arizona Project Aqueduct to carry water to urban and agricultural areas and to American Indian reservations in central and southern Arizona. 

Fish Species 

The lake can store as much as 648,000 acre-feet of water and spans over 20,000 acres. Largemouth and smallmouth bass populations have begun to flourish in recent years, while the reservoir also hosts some catfish and sunfish species.