Smith Mountain Lake water levels at historic lows

Added: 2026-05-16

[00:00:00]To show you how bad this drought really is, the people at Bridgewater Marina told me that this dock behind me is normally level with the one that I'm standing on right now. Now, just for reference, I'm 5'5 and there is a whole kneeized gap in between where the dock should be because the water levels are so low.

[00:00:18]>> I've never seen it this low for this long.

[00:00:20]>> Campbell Wreck, the dock manager at Bridgewater Marina, says due to low water levels, they're expecting more people to be renting boats on Memorial Day weekend and throughout the summer.

[00:00:29]With the boat lifts, a lot of the people that live down here either full-time or during the summer can't put their boats down, so their only option is to go to a boat rental company.

[00:00:37]>> Appalachin Powers says they're doing their best to mitigate these issues while maintaining power generation.

[00:00:42]Appco has to release a certain amount of water per day from their dam, but because of the drought, they're having to keep the lake at about 5 ft below full pond. Appco says for now they just need to wait for more rain.

[00:00:53]>> Other power generating plants, they can order more fuel. with with water, we can't unless mother nature gives us more fuel. So, we just have to hope that we get some more rain here in the future.

[00:01:01]We'll have the latest updates for you on the drought and the Smith Mountain Lake water levels online at wsls.com.