Las Vegas Sun

November 9, 2009

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Letter: Lake Mead’s area should be smaller

Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2003 | 8:48 a.m.

Patricia Mulroy's finger-wagging "Where I Stand" column on Sunday, "Getting water-smart," misses one good solution to the current water problem: Shrink Lake Mead.

Why is Lake Mead so large? To accommodate a few thousand boaters? There seems to be no rational reason. There must be enough waterpower to run the turbines in Hoover Dam, certainly, but must the lake stretch for so many miles? The larger the water surface area, the more water evaporates.

So why not make Lake Mead half or one-third its present size. The only reason there is a drought emergency is because special interests want Lake Mead to stay at its current size. Don't forget that the lake is totally artificial and does not belong in the desert. Boaters have the huge Pacific Ocean at their disposal, they don't need Lake Mead.

THOMAS F. HIRSCH

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