In a 2011 interview, Floyd Dominy, the Reclamation Commissioner who had spearheaded the Colorado River Storage Project, maintained USBR's stance on the benefits of the dam project. Although Lake Powell loses water to evaporation and leakage, it continues to serve an important function capturing runoff during wet years, as "insurance" for droughts. During the 2000–2004 Colorado River drought, when the basin experienced its lowest five-year runoff on record, Lake Mead would likely have gone dry and the Lower Basin experienced massive cuts, were it not for releases from Lake Powell.