Lake Mead braces for lowest level since 1965

Marinas, docks are moved as water level drops below last year’s lowest point

Justin M. Bowen

A sign at a launch ramp at Lake Mead warns boaters of hazards created by falling water levels.

By Jean Reid Norman (contact)

Friday, April 24, 2009 | 2:01 a.m.

Lake Mead Losing Water

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On the concrete launch ramp of Boulder Harbor, where a marina once docked boats at Lake Mead, National Park Service spokesman Andrew Munoz points to a thin strip of land that protrudes almost a foot out of the water.

“See that?” he asks. “A week ago, if you were to stand on that finger of land, you would be knee deep in water.”

Lake Mead’s elevation has dropped to 1,103 feet above sea level, and by July, the Bureau of Reclamation forecasts that it will be at 1,092, its lowest level since 1965, when Colorado River water was being retained upstream to fill Lake Powell in Arizona.

Rough asphalt installed in the 1960s to help boats reach the lake at the previous low-water mark at Boulder Harbor is visible at the end of the concrete launch ramps. Munoz points in the distance to a wooden structure hanging over a small bluff. It used to be a fishing pier, he says.

After nine years of drought, the Lake Mead National Recreational Area is preparing for another year of moving ramps, marinas and other facilities, chasing the shoreline as it recedes.

Echo Bay Marina in the northern part of Lake Mead began preparations Thursday to tow the docks to deeper water, Munoz said. The marina will close from April 26 through May 5, but boat owners who use the slips will be shuttled from shore to their vessels, Munoz and marina employees said. Boat rentals will still be available by reservation, Munoz said.

Temple Bar Marina on the Arizona side will also close soon to move it to deeper water, Munoz said.

At Boulder Harbor, pipe matting made of corrugated steel will be laid over the dirt where the concrete launch ramp ends, to prevent vehicles and vessels from creating potholes at the water’s edge, he said. That will be a temporary fix while a contract is sought to extend the launch ramp yet another time.

In addition, park rangers continually move buoys and other navigational aids to help boaters avoid an unpleasant run-in with a rock or other obstruction that used to be well below the water’s surface.

The work is expected to cost the park service $10 million, and the marinas are expected to put another $1 million into the move, he said.

These changes are part of the larger story of the drought that has gripped the Southwest.

Fourteen months ago, Lake Mead Marina, which used to occupy Boulder Harbor and was known as a place where tourists and children could feed popcorn to carp, pulled up its anchors and was floated down the shore to Hemenway Harbor.

The Southern Nevada Water Authority, which draws 90 percent of Southern Nevada’s water supply from two intake pipes in Lake Mead, is racing the falling water levels to complete a third intake that will preserve its ability to fill Las Vegas’ water needs, spokesman J.C. Davis said.

One of the intake pipes will lose its ability to draw water when the lake reaches 1,050 feet elevation, a level that the Bureau of Reclamation is not predicting in its two-year forecast, Davis said.

The Water Authority has drawn a line in the sand at 1,000 feet, he said. That’s the lowest level the second intake and the new intake will be able accommodate, he said. Before the lake reaches that point, the states that depend on Colorado River water have agreed to renegotiate the way water is divided, Davis said.

The current low-water level can be traced upstream, Davis said. The snow pack in the Rocky Mountains was 82 percent of normal, which is better than the average of 67 percent over the past several years, he said.

If there had been more, he said, the water level of Lake Powell might have reached a high enough level that more water would have been released to Lake Mead.

In addition, he said, the growing season in California and Arizona is beginning, and orders are coming in for agriculture, which uses 80 percent of the water taken out of Lake Mead. Because of that cycle, summer is when the lake always reaches its annual low-water mark, Davis said.

Still, it’s discouraging to boaters like Jesse Keenan, who was pulling his boat in from an outing at Boulder Harbor Thursday morning.

“There’s nothing you can do about it,” he said. “It’s like a martini glass. You take one sip at the top and it’s no big deal. When you get to the bottom, each sip is a big deal.

“We didn’t used to have a problem. Now, are you kidding me?”

CORRECTION: This story was updated to correct the area of Lake Mead referenced as Boulder Harbor.

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Discussion: 21 comments so far…

By BorisR

4/24/09 at 2:28 a.m.

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Once the water's gone everybody will go wow, uh, ah, what happened here....but then it will be too late for Vegas. Instead of saving water, reducing expesive and crazy golf courses and water fountains, Vegas still did not get the message. It's in the middle of the desert, and water is a precious thing. Are they working on the water pipelines from Canada or Utah yet? It would be a bit far pumping the water from Switzerland to Vegas, I guess. Although, we would have plenty of it for you guys :)

Greetings from Switzerland
By KlerRyan

4/24/09 at 5:06 a.m.

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Why should farmers in Utah and Canada suffer to supply pointless water fountains and pools for the rich and give up their water just because Las Vegas is greedy?? Vegas had their chance to conserve. Oh well.
By nednougat

4/24/09 at 6:52 a.m.

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Luckily, the rotten economy should slow down consumption. Plus we will eventually have to say "Bye, bye" to farmers in Cali. No lettuce, no soybeans. Big deal, as long as we can get our Big Macs and KFC heart killers. What a country...Then we'll all move to Switzerland, and screw them up, too. right, Boris?
By OG

4/24/09 at 7:20 a.m.

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Actually the problem is much worse than is being reported:

1. Even though demand for water from Mean has fallen by 5% or so due to the population exodous and recessionary economy, the average Vegas household consumes twice as much water per day than a homeowner in Tucson. There is virtually NO hope that the consumption needs of the Vegas Valley can be met with continued "efforts" at demand reduction.

2. Stealing water from Elko or Utah is a non-starter. Folks in Vegas might be able to bully the people in Elko for their ground water, but the 200+ mile pipe is expensive, slow to build, and will only provide marginal increases in supply. Utah, its relative influence growing (as opposed to Nevada's), will have little difficulty in blocking a similar scheme to siphon their water.

3. As much as I would like to see Agriculture in California be cut down to sustainable size, Nevada will not be able to push California's share down all that much - and probably if at all,not in time.

Thew bottom line is that Lake Mead is the #1 issue in Vegas right now. Recessions come and go, but giant bodies of life-sustaining water take geological history (even if accelerated by the construction of a human-made dam) to produce.

No water, no life.
By pmmart

4/24/09 at 7:35 a.m.

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There are answers to the issues of water shortages in the America southwest .. too bad we have to wait until the monied interests have exhausted the present situation before anyone will listen to the suggestions that might address the problem.
By James_P_Reza

4/24/09 at 8:32 a.m.

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Wow, so much "tsk-tsking" at Nevada. Please.

Water is a limited resource for EVERYONE, not just Nevadans. There is a limited amount of water on the planet that can never be reduced nor increased. The only thing that changes is where it lands.

The problem has little to do with our fountains and golf courses, it has to do with population. In fact ALL global environment and resource issues can only truly be addressed though addressing population. Until then, it's all just blowing smoke.

Why don't you folks go to a Indonesian newspaper website and rail against those who moved into a tsunami zone, or a New Orleans newspaper website and attack people for moving to a hurricane zone, or a South Dakota newspaper website and attack folks for living to close to a river that floods?

Or would that make your self-centered approach too obvious?
By patchem

4/24/09 at 8:45 a.m.

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This shows the arrogance of the U.S. Government. Lake Meade at its lowest point since 1965 and the BLM wants to lease land to another rock quarry that will use about 500,000 gallons of water a week for 20 years to water dirt. Rock-On....
By mcmc_john

4/24/09 at 10:46 a.m.

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This story is only the tip of the ice berg.

Southern Nevada Water Authority is still down playing the severity of the water problem that faces Clark County over the next two years.

Keep in mind that this article states that one intake valve will be eliminated if the water drops below 1050 feet. If we have a year like we had in 2002 we will fall below that level by 2012.

The new intake valve is not expected to be in place before 2014. So the question is of course ...where are we going to get our water in the meantime?

Remember that 90% of Clark Counties water comes from the lake. No pipeline or underground water supply can replace that amount of water.

A construction trade union coalition picketed the SNWA as far back as 2002 to bring attention to the fact that the SNWA's calculation on water supply was off by 35 years over the next 50 years. It took two years before the SNWA recognize their error.

In 2004 this same coalition called for changes in the growth patterns for Clark County in hopes of bringing growth and supply into accountability. Unfortunately the leadership of the SNWA chose to follow their builder friends and not only continue to follow their failed growth patterns but they chose to increase growth in the residential home building industry over the next two years.

In 2005 the coalition stated that the drop in the water level at the lake was because of bad management and inaccurate numbers being used by the SNWA and not the so-called drought. Surprise that the SNWA did not admit to these errors within their agency until now. Now they are saying that we could be out of water as early as 2021...

The coalition known as "Raising the Standard of Living" is still holding to the truth that Clark County could be out of water by 2012. They expect Pat Mulroy to make an announcement within the next three months that it is time to curb all construction .... but she will still blame 'Mother Nature' for this problem not poor decision by her regime.

She is already announced that she is looking for another job. Does that mean she knows something we don't?

And... Please don't tell me it was because the SNWA was collecting over $250,000,000 a year as hook up fees from home builders in order to cover the cost of someones quest for the Secretary of Interior position, by signing onto extravagant water projects that cost Nevadans money while Californian and Arizonians received sweetheart deals. OH my Oh my...do you think there will be state investigation...?
By will_lv

4/24/09 at 10:54 a.m.

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If you take a look at the water leaving the wash from Lake Las Vegas, you will see where there is another solution as well. Compared to the rush of water in the 90s before Lake Las Vegas, the wash now only sends back a stream of water.
Lake Las Vegas is an area that needs to go for the benefit of all. There is no reason to have a Lake resort down the road from the national lake.
You also have to consider the amout of water that is still settling under the lake there as lost water and instead of making it a small conservative amount of water, they fill the entire dam.
True stupidity.
By TwoCents

4/24/09 at 12:01 p.m.

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Hmmm, some serious misconceptions. Nevada gets less than 2 percent of the Colorado River's water. Most of what leaves Lake Mead goes to California, Arizona and Mexico and the bulk of that is used in agriculture. It is not Las Vegas that draws down the Lake, but Las Vegas does have great reason to be concerned.

The net impact of Las Vegas' resorts is less than 3 percent of our Colorado River water. Few industries support so many jobs with that amount of water.

People also like to refer to Vegas as urban sprawl. We do (did) grow fast, but we are typically in the top ten US cities for population density (ahead of Seattle, Portland, Denver, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Diego and others that may surprise you).

As another commenter pointed out, there are no "perfect" places to live.
By matteo2003i

4/24/09 at 2:15 p.m.

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All of you who are blaming the people of Las Vegas for the low Lake Mead levels--why don't you move out of Las Vegas? Why are you still there? You're using water too.

I hate to tell you this, but using 20% less water with a low flush toilet isn't going to save the lake either. It's called a cycle--the snowpack is low. Period--when the snowpack in the Rocky's increases, the snowmelt will fill Lake Powell and the powers that be will finally start filling Lake Meade up.
By sanddiver

4/24/09 at 3:26 p.m.

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I find it very interesting that the fountains are always the first attacked whenever the Las Vegas water issue is discussed. Folks, the fountains use reclaimed water. And concerning the water use in California, are you ready to give up your salads, etc. The Imperial Valley in California supplies about 25% of the fresh vegetables that are grown in the USA. Would you like to import more (probably poisoned) fresh produce from other countries?
The other thing is, before you cast a stone you should make sure you are doing your part to conserve water no matter where you live. Don't point fingers at Las Vegas (or single out any other part of the country) until you fully understand the issue. It isn't as simple as it appears!
By 9ballguy

4/24/09 at 4:02 p.m.

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That reclaimed water used for fountains could be purified into drinking water instead of being allowed to evaporate at a very fast rate in the dry desert air.
By Harley

4/24/09 at 4:06 p.m.

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If one is wondering what Lake Mead looked like back in 1965, check out the movie Viva Las Vegas with Elvis Presley, Ann Margret and William Demarest (1964).

Also check out what the city's development horizon looked like at the time as well.
By 2zero

4/24/09 at 8:33 p.m.

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It's a freaking desert you morons...the Colorado river does not even outflow to the ocean, anymore!

But grow and grow and we can get that waer from...the freaking desert "underground"...remember the "Springs"???? i.e. Las Vegas...."the meadows"
By Purgatory

4/25/09 at 11:31 a.m.

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...for the record fellow readers and commenters, Las Vegas is not greedily consuming Lake Mead...citizens of Las Vegas didn't use 1920's data to allocate its use...sorry folks, ain't the fault of Vegas...limited data during the dam construction, over allocation by the Federal Government, et al, are at the root of the present shortage...the past utilization of the Colorado River is truly blameless...good people made the best choices with the best information available...no ones fault...future use of the water resource, on-the-other-hand, may have some culprits...too early to tell...let's hope that the policy makers are up to the task...here's a fact: more water evaporates from the lake than the Valley uses...actually, almost 50% more...nature is kinda funny, doncha think?...
By vegasd8

4/25/09 at 8:08 p.m.

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Lake Mead and Lake Powell can be easily refilled and kept at peak levels forever if a simple infrastructure plan were to be put in place - and it would be cheaper than the AIG bailouts. As tributaries of the Mississippi and Columbia Rivers flood annually, causing billions of dollars in damage and destruction, plus heartaches for millions, we can provide a great service to the folks that are flood vitims in the Midwest and Northwest parts of the country, while quenching the thirst of all living in the parched Southwest. Simply build some high capacity water pumping stations along both rivers mentioned and premept the floods by moving the water out through tributaries, channels and pipelines and into the Colorado River. Simple solution. Can be done. Just needs some cooperation from all concerned, foresight, planning and bipartisan political prioritization.
By Ds_Gentle_Master

4/26/09 at 9:12 a.m.

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From their wedding announcement five years ago...
......................................

Hawaiian nuptials: The wedding of James "Jim" Michael Rhodes and Glynda Ann Jenkins took place in Maui, Hawaii, on April 4. The couple flew 77 family and friends from Las Vegas to the islands. All were their guests at the Grand Wailea Hotel for a week in celebration of their marriage.

The groom is the son of Betsy Rhodes and the late Leonard Rhodes. The bride is the daughter of Betty and Doug Thompson of Pioche.

The wedding took place April 8 at the Wailea Seaside Chapel at the hotel. The Rev. Ron Winkler performed the traditional service.

John Rhodes, the groom's brother, did a reading and offered a personal message of faith, love and devotion for the new family as a part of the ceremony.

Michael Rhodes, the groom's oldest son, served as best man. The groom's two brothers, John and Steven Rhodes, served as ushers.

The bride wore a beaded white satin halter-style gown with a full tulle skirt. A tiara held the cathedral-length veil. The bride's oldest son, Devon Zec, escorted his mother down the aisle and gave her away in marriage.

Annie Dobbs-Kolenda as matron of honor attended the bride.

Ryan Rhodes and Jared Zec spread rose petals preceding the ceremony. Austin Zec carried the rings down the aisle.

The reception took place on the Grand Wailea's outdoor patio with a formal dinner and dancing in the ballroom. Each guest received a crystal box filled with silver heart candies. The wedding cake was decorated with fresh red roses on a silver carriage cake stand. There was a special buffet table for the junior guests with a menu to delight the children's palates, including an ice cream sundae bar.

Michael Rhodes proposed the toast to the bride and groom. For the reception, the bride changed into a fitted peau de soie gown with a beaded bodice with beaded shoulder and crossing back straps and a tulip skirt.

On returning to their rooms after the wedding, guests found a bottle of Dom Perignon engraved for the occasion.

The newlyweds will reside in Las Vegas.
By miglewis

5/7/09 at 7:46 a.m.

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Some rebuttals

US Census data:
Population density of Las Vegas, NV
(2000) 4,222.3/sq mi
Population density of N. Las Vegas, NV
(2000) 1,471.0/sq mi
Population density of Philadelphia, PA (2000)11,233.6/sq mi
Population density of Chicago, IL
(2000) 12,750.5/sq mi
Population density of Washington, DC
(2000) 9,316.9/sq mi

The Mississippi floodwaters are what recharge the Midwest's plains with fresh silt, it's necessary for the fields.

While Vegas isn't a civilization of it's own, it could gain some useful insight though Jarred Diamond's "Collapse." Long term sustainability is completely possible for Las Vegas and it can be a wonderful place but it must accept its environmental setting. Vegas is unique and should relish its setting and it should be prohibitively expensive to maintain the out of place water rich lifestyle. Places like Tuscon have accepted desert life, why do Midwestern and Eastern transplants continue to live like their in Michigan?
By lakerrrrfan

11/15/09 at 2:56 p.m.

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The problem is Las Vegas because at least one of the Colorado River Lakes (Powell,Mead,Mohave,Tahoe)is supplying water and that will effect them all. Las Vegas is in the middle of a desert. Humans were never supposed to live there and keep up pristene green golf courses when it never rains!
By flip

11/23/09 at 7:53 a.m.

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There's really no defending useless water consumption, and while it's just another cog in the big picture...

...even an idiot knows, "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas".