50 years. you can actually see one of its original water intake valves exposed for the first time as the climate-fueled mega drought is gripping the western portion of the united states. cnn s stephanie ulelam joins us again. this is crippling i remember you standing over lake meade as you were reporting on this earlier. this crippling drought is now leading to some very new and real restrictions. reporter: yeah, and you know what i keep thinking about, kate, is april showers bring may flowers. not so much out here in the west since we barely got any rain. when you see something like this, an actual picture that you can look at to see just how low lake meade has gotten, think about it 40 million people get their water from the colorado river basin in seven states, it feeds down into mexico and some the native american tribes, as well, rely on this for water. this is a big deal that you can see this. now the southern nevada water authority, they are saying that there are seven age