Lake Mead is almost gone

[dlandersson]

Lake Mead is almost gone

[Newell]

Just heard the West is going to have a 'wetter' year. I hope that is true, GSl, Powell and Mead were some of my favs, now gone to me.

[Highlander]

We just had one of the worst & biggest storms ever recorded on the NWP this wk-end seems like its going from one extreme to the other sadly

J

[OverEasy]

Hi All!!!

Just ran across this bit from the Weather Channel about the Western US Mega Drought that may be of interest.

https://www.weather.com/science/environ ... the-latest

Really didn’t realaize how extensive it has become.

Best Regards,
Over Easy

[pitchpolehobie]

Perhaps when it was designed & built it was at a time when there was an unusually large amount of water available to fill the lakes and now we're seeing average rather than a super-drought. Funneling the water to a city of 2.2mil in the middle of a dessert probably doesnt help.

I hope the lake fills to capacity for a long time into the future. TBD.

[OverEasy]

Jusanfyi……

[PSNA]

Water for Mead comes primarily from the snowpack in the Rockies.

Although this has fluctuated year over year, the real problem is California.

Mead supplies a major portion of water for LA. Not to mention the miles and miles of crops that are being grown in the California desert.

This creates a net deficit of over 1.25 million acre-feet each year.

[NiceAft]

It may start in the Rockies, but it’s the Colorado River that actually supplies most of the water for Lake Mead, and that river has been suffering for years.

[PSNA]

The source of the Colorado River is the La Poudre Pass Lake in the Rocky Mountain National Park.

The lake is nothing more than a collection point for the melting snowpack. The river would not exist without it.

The problems with the Colorado River are man-made and have nothing to do with global warming. Before emptying into the Gulf of California, seven states pull from it for drinking water and crop irrigation.

Population in these areas has grown exponentially and the simple, inconvenient truth is there isn't enough water for everyone.

Just like the California wildfires. Everyone wants to blame this global warming thing for them. The state has done a god-awful job of managing its forest growth and overhead electricity lines cause the vast majority of them.

[dlandersson]

Yeah, quite a few midwest faculty retire and move to Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, etc. (those that don't move to Florida). I always wonder what they think is going to happen "down the road". It's been a time bomb for decades. California too, for a different reason.

The problems with the Colorado River are man-made and have nothing to do with global warming. Before emptying into the Gulf of California, seven states pull from it for drinking water and crop irrigation.

Population in these areas has grown exponentially and the simple, inconvenient truth is there isn't enough water for everyone.

Just like the California wildfires. Everyone wants to blame this global warming thing for them. The state has done a god-awful job of managing its forest growth and overhead electricity lines cause the vast majority of them.

[OverEasy]

Yeah! Those HUGE conglomerate corporate farms in that region are using the majority of the water for crop growing in what used to be ancient deserts! It’s almost unbelievable the amount of irrigation water being used! MASSIVE rotating sprayer wheel structures and post sprayers were visible for miles when we drove through that region several years ago! Temps were in the mid to upper nineties and you could feel the change in humidity in the air as we drove along between “farms”. Don’t know the in air evaporation percentages but it must be considerable. These corporate farms have expanded dramatically using “grandfathered” water use contracts that are only beginning to be reevaluated. The corporate farms are also drilling numerous deep wells into the aquifer and aren’t holding back on how much they pump out. The locals and family ranchers are struggling as the bulk users get priority but fortunately some of that is beginning to change. Hopefully sooner rather than later….

https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/w ... ado-river/

Agriculture uses approximately 80 percent of Colorado River water to irrigate nearly 4 million acres, providing 15 percent of America’s crop output and 13 percent of our livestock production. It is a significant contributor to rural economies and provides a number of environmental, cultural and ecosystem services benefits.

http://blogs.edf.org/growingreturns/201 ... ut-to-dry/




Just food for thought….





Dry Dock space?

[pitchpolehobie]

Well, I guess before it was productive it all just ran into the ocean. I would assume recreational boating is low on the list of priorities for the river/dam system and its not a critical supply of fish for consumption so it makes sense to use for crop land etc. I would like to think we can avoid this catastrophe -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aral_Sea

TBD.

[NiceAft]

As I said; “the river has been suffering for years”, regardless of where it originates.

I have a son in Arizona. I asked hm what are the people doing about their water supply? Everyone seems to have a swimming pool. He says Arizonians are not going to give up their pools.

[OverEasy]

Yup!
You’re right!
Problem a long time in the making.
No easy solutions for these….

(Funny you should mention swimming pools.
A friend recently bought about 4 to 5 acres of AZ desert and has been spending the past several months putting in irrigation systems, hot tub and swimming pool. In his case to his credit he is using natural water collection and recycling. I wouldn’t doubt that he has incorporated a low evaporation cover system for the hot tub and pool.)

[PSNA]

As I said; “the river has been suffering for years”, regardless of where it originates.

I have a son in Arizona. I asked hm what are the people doing about their water supply? Everyone seems to have a swimming pool. He says Arizonians are not going to give up their pools.

And what happens to Arizona pool owners when Colorado turns off the spigot?

Colorado has grown immensely over the past 20 years. A good portion of the water they use comes from the Upper and Lower Dawson. The Upper Dawson has been under stress for years now and no one wants drinking water from the lower Dawson. The smell is god awful.

There is a reason water is called White Gold in that state. I owned 200 acres of land that came with both mineral and water rights. For over 10 years the state would try to take the water rights back with every kind of trickery under the sun.

It finally ended when I went to the local paper and announced I would begin removing the cattle and horses off the property and building bogs for growing cranberries.

My land was in an unincorporated area of town. If I went through with the plan, it would have caused water shortages within the town limits.

The cows and horses lived happily ever after.