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Near the Hoover Dam, the difference in the color of the rocks shows how high the water level in Lake Mead has been. Drought on the Colorado River has reduced the region’s water reserves.
Friday, Sept. 17, 2010 | 12:31 p.m.
Special coverage
The Boulder Harbor launch ramp at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area has been closed indefinitely because of falling lake levels, the National Park Service announced Friday.
Park service spokesman Kevin Turner said water in the harbor is expected to drop half a foot in the next month, lowering its depth in the harbor to 3.5 feet. The park service has determined that depth is unsafe for boats and other watercraft to launch, he said.
Lake Mead’s overall elevation is projected to lose 3 feet by the end of October, dropping from 1,085 to 1,082 feet. Gary Warshefski, deputy superintendent at Lake Mead, attributed the water loss to the ongoing drought in the Upper Colorado River Basin, which includes Southern Nevada.
The Department of the Interior estimates the drought began in October 1999.
When full, Warshefski said the lake should be at 1,220 feet.
Turner couldn’t estimate when the launch ramp would reopen, but said the park service is exploring a number of alternative designs to accommodate visitors. Concrete barriers and closure signs will block the ramp until it is deemed safe to use.
Launch ramps at Callville Bay, on the lake's east side; Echo Bay, to the north; and Hemenway Harbor, at the south end, remain open and are recommended as alternate sites for boat launching, Turner said.
dipstick once again having no clue what they are saying. When will it end? Hopefully by the time the recession and water drop does.
Just steal the water from another state, no big deal, everyones doing it.
Urban sprawl in Las Vegas is not to blame as Southern Nevada gets a small percentage to the overall water allocation of the lake. The problem is the LV Valley has done its part actually reducing water use by xeriscaping and more.
Until California adopts similar guidelines and finds a more water smart farming process this is what we are left with.
Food for thought here people, I see that few people actually have a solid understanding of how the water supplies in this country work. Let me shed some light. The depth of Lake Mead is controlled by the Federal Government. To go a little further, most Lakes in the Country, that are used as water supplies, that have federally funded damn systems, are controlled by the feds. The Level of Lake Mead is really not a huge concern. They want us to believe that it is and scare everyone into a conservative thought process. The Federal Water Commission has been keeping Lakes north of Mead at record levels and have been doing such for the last ten years. Please do not believe that Lake Mead couldn't be replenished if the Federal Water Commission wanted such. As well we, Las Vegas Water Authority, pump thousands of gallons of water from Lake Mead into the underground aquifer system, right here at home daily. Unfortunately like most things today, it has more to do with the f***ed up politicians that the farmers in Ca. If you don't believe what I am writing, please make phone calls and research this for yourself so you may be more educated on the matter.
Stop using the word drought. Ascribing the situation to drought, leads the uninformed to assume that we're in a temporary situation that will resolve itself when "normal" weather returns.
This is the new "normal".
The Columbia River is about 800 miles from Vegas. The Alaskan pipeline is about 800 miles long...bunch of jobs created, Vegas has a new source of really good water. Problem solved, thank me later.
The Dept. of the Interior are the same people rounding up & killing wild horses. They don't want you to know all the water is being used for "Hydro Fracking" by the oil & gas corps.Millions & millions of gallons turned into waste water after they use it. They make profit & we lose our natural resource. People are able to light water from their kitchen sinks on fire! See "GASLAND" trailer on you tube.
building moritoriums are a not a good idea (and greedy in and of themselves). What you need is to end water subsidies.
The economy as it is now makes this the right to sort this out. The water rights, water molecule problems here in the west is a mess. We need to get water rights in alignment with the volumes of water actually available in the Colorado River Basin.
No water means means no mortgages for homes. A whole new way to be underwater.
in response to green617...
there are ideas of building underground aquaducts from the great lakes.... talk about job security.
Solution:
1. Construct temporary power grid replace the energy Hoover Dam produces.
2. Restrict/slow water flow through Hoover Dam until Lake Mead replenishes.
3. The SoCal farms that dry up can file for a loss from the gov't (the gov't is handing out $ to every body anyways)
4. After the lake replenishes, everything is back to normal for another 20/30/40 years and the temp power grid can be torn down and recycled.
Dipstick taught me something today!
I wasn't aware that lake Mead was a natural lake and that the blockage that formed it wasn't man made!
Thanks Dipstick
For the 9th time gbigs shut up about Democrats and Republicans and stay on subject.
...to the aptly named dipstick...dude, more water evaporates from Lake Mead than is used in the Las Vegas Valley...heya justsayen...your 'facts' are uhm, er, uhm, wrong...furthermore, politicians cannot make it snow...the reduced storage in Lake Mead IS CERTAINLY a concern - just sayin...
Once California makes economical desalination plants, they can run their damn aquaducts to the irrigation channels in The Central and Imperial Valleys and stop taking water from Lake Mead. Same with Arizona, those bastards need to get their desalination plant on line in Mexico on the Gulf of California in San Felipe. Much of the water problem can be solved when this takes place!
Green617: Environmentalist Groups will never allow it as it will disrupt the populations of Sturgeon, Salmon & Steelhead in the Columbia river.
MJM6787: Aqueducts are gravity fed waterways. How would it be possible to pump the water up to the 10,000 foot level of the continental divide to let it flow to Lake Mead without utilizing an obscene amount of energy to do so?
@ Justsayen:
I agree that people should be educated about our water supplies. We'll save you a desk near the front.
Water on the Colorado is managed by the Bureau of Reclamation in accordance with policies and agreements forged over the past 90 years. The policies are quite complex, so it's not unusual that the average person gets confused.
There's not an abundance of water anywhere on the Colorado. The river has produced 40% below average flows over the past decade. Lake Powell is 65 feet from full. A few years ago, however, Powell was in worse shape than Mead. It's actually in our interest that Powell recovers. Although there's no secret stash of water to the north, it does make sense to store water farther north where it evaporates at a lower rate.
True, Nevada gets less than 2% of the water allocated on this river, but pointing fingers will get us nowhere. This is not the "fault" of farmers, or any particular state or city.
Thirty million people depend upon this river in some way. We're all going to be challenged. As in the past, the best solutions will come from collaborating with our neighbors.
@TwoCents:
You seem to be on top of this. My understanding is that the Southern Nevada Water Authority controls a great deal of water in Lincoln and White Pine Counties (the cattle and alfalfa). The plan is to pipe ground water down to Vegas on a very expensive pipeline. Perhaps you can tell us about this if you know more.
PS. Jesus--almost all of the power generated at Hoover Dam is shipped to Arizona and Southern California.
I think the water level is Obama, Reid and Pelosi's fault. I mean isnt everything?
@vc: why not blame them. Harry takes credit for creating jobs but when they disappear so does he.
Oh, Harry, Where art thou?
I just talked to Gbigs, and he told me that the problem was cause by Harry Reid and Obama. Just elect Angle and the lake as dipstick said, will replenish itself !
Here it is in a nut shell. To many people not enough water in the hole. No snow and rain up north no water in the hole. Now factor in waste Bingo! I doubt if any of us will ever see the lake at capacity unless the waste is controled and the population slows to a crawl. Which I doubt it will.
my solution is for the water district to buy some moving vans and help those of us who are able to move to the Mississippi River Valley. Ok, it is drying up - move now - in the meantime find someone to shower with and use powder and other aids when you can't shower anymore!
Drought my behind. The Colorado River Authority/Federal Parks authorized the Sultan Sea to be filled up, hence an almost overnight 100 foot drop of lake level. It has nothing to do with drought. Dont let them fool you, we are throwing water away by filling up a mud hole in California. They think we are stupid. The lake is at its lowest level in 40 years plus/minus. It is called federal water management of the colorado river system. I cant believe they are still trying to pawn off the low water levels on drought.
Colorado River Compact
Lower Basin water allocation in million acre ft per year:
4.4 California
2.8 Arizona
0.3 Nevada
7.5 Total USA
1,500,000 Mexico
That's not a typo. We give Mexico 5,000,000 times more water then we get in Nevada.
Building houses out by the 215 is not the problem. What happened is water usage was agreed on in the 1920's when the population of Clark county was 2,300 people. IMO Nevada has done it's share to conserve water. It is time to go back to the table and relocate the water to give Nevada more than a few drops and raise our lake level.
The other problem is the agreement does not factor in how much water is available. At the time it may have seemed like an endless supply. Now a percentage of what what is available or added is more realistic.
Mexico uses our water to produce crops they transport and sell into our markets. They don't pay federal taxes and they don't have to abide by the food safety, worker compensation, OSHA and minimum wage requirements we have to follow.
So blame the US government for giving away our resources to Mexicans again.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_Ri...
@ active1
if this is any consolation
Mexico gets what we flush, I know we treat it first but still...plus its pretty salty by the time it gets down there.
Lets pray for more snow and rain. The rain and snow are the only way to replenish the western water system. We cannot continue to second-guess what nature will provide for us and live within what is provided to us. I pray that "God" will be able to provide us with extra water. Without it, we will not survive anywhere in the World. This is an International issue.
We do not suffer from a shortage of water just an overbundace of illegals,throw in over building equals a shoot out for a drink of water.
@Active1,
Not a typo, just a massive decimal point problem. Mexico gets 1.5 million acre feet, as you said, but you forgot to add the zeros onto the US States' water allocations.
There are 7.5 million acre feet allocated to states in both the upper and lower Colorado for a total of 15 million acre feet. The US has ten times the Colorado River allocation of Mexico.
Anyway, just because we're upstream doesn't mean we can keep it all. Besides, a huge amount of the Ag products grown in that region of Mexico are consumed on our dinner tables.
@ConcernedNative: You don't know what you're talking about. Perhaps you had trouble looking up legitimate info using "Sultan Sea?" The body of water you're talking about is the Salton Sea and there's been no massive inflow of Colorado River water to fill it up. To top it off, those so-called wild horses are destroying the range for true-native animals. They did not evolve in that ecosystem.
Oh, my bad. I stand corrected by TwoCets.
Nevada 0.3
Mexico 1.5
Love or hate the lake and the problems associated with it, recently the MAN behind western US dams died: FLOYD DOMINY 4/ 2010
http://www.hcn.org/hcn/wotr/floyd-dominy...
"Dominy, the determined dam-builder, who learned as a young man in Nebraska that water in a river does no good at all if isn't made available for people to use."
Be glad there is even any water there at all. Think about no DAMs along the Colorado R.
SIGH
Mexico was allocated water under the Colorado River Compact as an afterthought.
You can complain about farmers using up the water, but they were the dominant original water rights holders, and the main reason behind building the big dams on the Colorado.
Only later did cities and developers buy up the ag water rights and transfer the use to industrial/domestic use.
The reason Nevada wound up with so little Colorado River water is that there was very little ag use in Nevada when the Colorado River Compact was drawn up.
If readers havent read the greatest non-fiction book ever written: CADILLAC DESERT/ Riesner...
I ogrishly recommend it.
Water/Hydrology is a tough subject and will really become profitable to foreign companies who are become the WATER BARONS in America and worldwide; GOOGLE it...
More interesting to me is that US built a desalinization plant to ensure Mexico would get useable water before it flowed into Baja's Gulf of California. Then they put drainage tiles in Arizona's saltiest soils to end the need for the plant.
In the meantime, THOUSANDS of Acres each month are being decimated by salts in the soil in San Joaquin Valley.
All the while we are at the forefront of developing farm crops that will adapt to saltier soils...
And, if farmers in SJV were to cut back even a small part of their 90% usage, Southern California could have a water surplus.
Then there is the problem of winter salads being grown in S Calif using Colorado River water; contaminated with perchlorates. (remove outer leaves cuts major % of contaminants)
Its a Pandoras Box topic, but Reisner book will give you the courage to peak inside.
SUPER SHEESH!
The almanac said less snow than last year.
Nevada should fund building desalinization plants in Sonora and Baja California on the Gulf Of California (Sea of Cortez). Then we could use their allocated water to fill up Lake Meade or place it back into the Las Vegas Valley Basin.
Yes Las Vegas is part of the blame, I used to run a construction water truck and had to dump 3 truckloads about 300 gallons each on dirt just to keep dust down (not on plants or any good use)PLAIN DIRT!!! Helloooo we live in the desert, there is going to be dust!!! anyway Cali. is the main user of the Lake Water! also Wild Fires!!! By the way did you here about the pipeline that was scrubbed to be built to get water from some farms in north Nevada? that were owned by people on the water distric board? and so was the company to build the pipeline! also the deal he made with the water department of lake powell in 2005? NO EXTRA WATER FOR LAKE MEAD TILL IT HIT A CERTAIN LEVEL SO WE CAN BUILD THE PIPELINE FROM THE NORTH!!! Well we hit that level in Oct. Nov.2009 trying to make him some millions BUT THANK GOD A JUDGE TOLD HIM NO!!! Now with Powell at 75 to 80 % capacity the winter melt just might come down to Lake Mead!!! yes we are losing water everyday But Lake Mead is doing what it was ment to do!!! IF YOU ARE A BOATER WATCHOUT FOR RISING MOUNTAINS! THERE IS ALOT OF LAND POPPING UP AND IN A SMALL BOAT YOU MIGHT NOT SEE IT BEFORE ITS TOO LATE! SOME ARE NOT MARKED (BOUYED)! THANK YOU AND BE SAFE!