The lake does not fill because various downstream water users (primarily agricultural interests) have a legal right to instream flows, even at these low inflows. Maintaining water levels for recreational use is not a legally defensible action, as much as the Apaches would like to do it. I've heard from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists working with San Carlos issues that absent an unexpected humongous spring rainfall, the lake will drop this year to fish-kill levels. The only other solution is the one the Apaches are working on again (they did this 2-3 years ago): get Congress to appropriate special funds for purchasing CAP water to work an exchange to meet the agricultural instream flow demands and let the curent trickle inflow stay in the lake. This is what happens when an entire state forgets that in a desert water is always the limiting factor.
