Lake Mead

[epoxyboy]

These guys have been doing a video every couple of weeks, tracking the drop in water level.
I'm not the slightest bit familiar with the area, but wow, this looks totally unsustainable.


Pete

[skuthorp]

What's happened to the communities that relied on the lake water? If bthere's a recovery it will not be quick.
I imagine that some places will become uninhabitable for humans, and then there's the wildlife…..
Is there any comparison with the 1930's drought?

"The analysis is part of its annual water resource plan and wasn't meant to determine how dwindling runoff might impact other users or the wider river. But it predicts that Lake Mead will continue to plummet through 2025 and dip into “dead pool” territory multiple times over the next 50 years."

And what of the Colorado River?
https://www.azcentral.com/story/opin...er/7544751001/

Well worth a read, and for residents of many states, very scary.

[Rigadog]

Somebody needs to invent a time machine so we can go back and make the correct choices about fossil fuels, we may be too late now.

[bluedog225]

I notice Lake Mead every once in a while. It’s been low for years, and years as I recall.

[skuthorp]

So, what of the pipeline to drought proof Vegas?

[Paul Pless]

So, what of the pipeline to drought proof Vegas?

bringing more water to the southwest will not make the desert southwest sustainable ecologically; it will just mean that many more people will move to the desert southwest

[willmarsh3]

The signs in the video indicating the lake level for various years are quite telling.

I don't think any area will be come totally uninhabitable, it will just support fewer people and certainly not the water heavy lifestyles we have today like green lawns, car washes and swimming pools. And there will be less industry and agriculture. I think Phoenix, LA, Las Vegas and others should start taking lessons from Cape Town.

[L.W. Baxter]

isn't it ridiculous that they continue to work to extend the boat ramp. give it up fellas.

we have a local reservoir that is likewise a source of drinking water, and i have always been a bit perplexed that motor boats are allowed on it. even when i was motoring on it myself.

[Paul Pless]

isn't it ridiculous that they continue to work to extend the boat ramp. give it up fellas.

we have a local reservoir that is likewise a source of drinking water, and i have always been a bit perplexed that motor boats are allowed on it. even when i was motoring on it myself.

did you ever pee in it?

[L.W. Baxter]

did you ever pee in it?

onesies sure. never dropped a deuce.

but with all the speed watersports going on there, i am sure there are some unexpected high colonics going on.

[CK 17]

Looks like just down the street they are blissfully unaware

https://www.newhomesource.com/commun...las-vegas-area

[Osborne Russell]

IIRC from geology class, dendrochronogy shows that in the southwestern USA, droughts of 80 years are not at all uncommon.

Very long boat ramps.

[john welsford]

These guys have been doing a video every couple of weeks, tracking the drop in water level.
I'm not the slightest bit familiar with the area, but wow, this looks totally unsustainable.


Pete

I've been out kayaking on Lake Mead, that, a few years back. Much enjoyed poking up the little canyons and creeks, to see it now is just beyond words.
On that same trip we stayed with friends in LA, he being an Ag Science graduate, and I commented then that I'd been reading that there was likely to be a water shortage in the area and he was in total denial. Now, he's still got his lawn watered, his swimming pool and spa pool filled, and water misters cooling the backyard. That as well as dishwasher and all the other water wasting devices.
I suspect that far too many will be the same until the taps run dry.

John Welsford

[Dave Wright]

The average water consumption in Los Angeles (all usages averaged across population) comes to 125 gallons per day per person (LA Times).
I noticed a University of Hawaii study on rain water catchment domestic systems that listed consumption of water for a typical family of four at 200 gallons per day, with some families using just 50 gallons per day. If the typical household in drought stricken areas would just wake up consumption could be decreased. But it's unlikely to be done voluntarily.

[LeeG]

It’s a kick to see all the gasoline powered activities in a place of rapidly declining water. The water can come back. The fossil carbon is on the loose!

[LeeG]

The average water consumption in Los Angeles (all usages averaged across population) comes to 125 gallons per day per person (LA Times).
I noticed a University of Hawaii study on rain water catchment domestic systems that listed consumption of water for a typical family of four at 200 gallons per day, with some families using just 50 gallons per day. If the typical household in drought stricken areas would just wake up consumption could be decreased. But it's unlikely to be done voluntarily.

Rain water catchment in Hawaii or the Southwest?

[Dave Wright]

Rain water catchment in Hawaii or the Southwest?

I attempted to show that in Hawaii families with rain water catchment systems are conscious of the issues. They have to supply their own expensive tanks, monitor tank level, and use water that is clearly finite and variable with rainfall. The typical LA resident doesn't know their ass from a hole in the ground in so many areas, but especially in water consumption.

[John B]

Multi level bizzarre to me.
Water level, that they build ramp extensions to that extent.
4 hours to launch a boat, sounds like a day somewhere else would be a good option to me.
Which barrel for Hoffa.

[Rich Jones]

Over 150' below full capacity. Yikes. All those hills seen in the video used to be under water.

[skuthorp]

So how low can it go? And how low before it is of no use as a water supply?
This seems to give a timeline for that failing a massive flood…….
https://www.azcentral.com/story/opin...er/7544751001/

[LeeG]

I attempted to show that in Hawaii families with rain water catchment systems are conscious of the issues. They have to supply their own expensive tanks, monitor tank level, and use water that is clearly finite and variable with rainfall. The typical LA resident doesn't know their ass from a hole in the ground in so many areas, but especially in water consumption.

Who needs to know anything when you go to the faucet and water flows, you go to fill your tank and there’s always fuel. While island people know they survive on imports and natural resources are dear mainlanders can entertain different beliefs. Roundabout way of saying the typical LA resident isn’t any different than other folks in the country wrt resources.

[LeeG]

Multi level bizzarre to me.
Water level, that they build ramp extensions to that extent.
4 hours to launch a boat, sounds like a day somewhere else would be a good option to me.
Which barrel for Hoffa.

I wonder how many of those trucks have the engines and ac running.

[skuthorp]

I was brought up on rain water from tanks, not big tanks either. Here we are on tank water too. Nearly 100,000 litres when full and about 5.000 in big barells round the garden. I could put on reticulated water but have not. The water authority asked me and most of the street why, I said 'Because the product is sh…." And it is, sour and full of chlorine.

[Dave Wright]

Screenshot_20220619-181009_Chrome.jpg

I keep track of Shasta Lake. Perhaps it stands a better chance of recovery than Mead, but at 121 feet below full pool it's scary. The last few years reveal an alarming trend.

[willmarsh3]

The construction of intake #3



I think this will forestall the inevitable for a short time.

[Katherine]

Anyone else wonder if the Las Vegas mafia is getting a little nervous as more and more barrels reappear?

[Paul Pless]

I think this will forestall the inevitable for a short time.

but isn't it just accelerating us to the end?

[switters]

Lake Powell about to start going down, came up a little this year. No level reports for the last 5 days, which is unusual. In the small print though we see that the river levels are at 35% of this time last year. Meanwhile the two sizeable reservoirs on the wester slope and Flaming Gorge Wy, are going to get emptied as a "we are trying" gesture which will have no impact in the long run for SOCAL but will make sure we dont have any open marinas on the west side of the divide for a few hundred miles. Next year the metro water district will come for the Colorado Big-Thompson water, water diverted at the head of the Colorado for a few reservoirs on the east side of the divide including my local happy place.

Molon Labe.

https://lakepowell.water-data.com/

[bluedog225]

The concrete filled barrel they discounted could totally have a body.

[Osborne Russell]

IIRC, once, 1960's - 70's, prosperity was just around the corner with the oil shale bonanza, using nukes to create large caverns ("retorts") to be used to cook oil out of the shale, then pump it out.

And as long as we're blasting away, there was also a proposal to blast a trench, with nukes, connecting the Colombia to the Colorado.

And lay out the MX missile system deep underground. The friendly atom! Radical leftists have robbed us, and given our water to fish!

Proposed uses for nuclear explosives under Project Plowshare included widening the Panama Canal, constructing a new sea-level waterway through Nicaragua nicknamed the Pan-Atomic Canal, cutting paths through mountainous areas for highways, and connecting inland river systems. Other proposals involved blasting caverns for water, natural gas, and petroleum storage. Serious consideration was also given to using these explosives for various mining operations. One proposal suggested using nuclear blasts to connect underground aquifers in Arizona. Another plan involved surface blasting on the western slope of California's Sacramento Valley for a water transport project.

-- wikipedia, Project Plowshare

[Gerarddm]

Hard decisions will have to be made, and soon, concerning water use and retention. I understand Las Vegas is now banning new lawns in preference for xeriscaping. The almond farms in southern California have to go, too. Etc. Etc.

[john welsford]

I was brought up on rain water from tanks, not big tanks either. Here we are on tank water too. Nearly 100,000 litres when full and about 5.000 in big barells round the garden. I could put on reticulated water but have not. The water authority asked me and most of the street why, I said 'Because the product is sh…." And it is, sour and full of chlorine.

I have read somewhere that some jurisdictions in the USA have made it illegal to collect and store rainwater.
That puts the people so affected onto the municipal water supply which I'd have thought would make the situation worse rather than better.

John Welsford

[stromborg]

"Water rights" get weird, complex and vary a lot from place to place. Here in the Pacific Northwet a friend was looking into why a piece of property he was interested in was so cheap (relatively speaking) For a reason I forget drilling a well was out but so was building a rain collection system because somebody had rights to that water. Rain water falling for free from the sky, not yours to use...like I said weird especially since in a case like that he would have been installing a septic system too so the water would have been put back, just delayed a bit.

[switters]

That was probably Colorado, since 2016 residents can keep 2 55 gallon drums of rain water, before that nothing.. In most areas that is about enough to water a small garden. Anything larger than a residential property and the rain belongs to Nebraska, Kansas, California, Arizona....because in 1922 no one lived n Colorado Utah or Arizona.

[John B]

I have read somewhere that some jurisdictions in the USA have made it illegal to collect and store rainwater.
That puts the people so affected onto the municipal water supply which I'd have thought would make the situation worse rather than better.

John Welsford

That's how it was here in our biggest city until the drought only 3 years or so ago. You know, when that guy got paid 800k per year to not supply water to Auckland.
The ostensible logic being that wastewater charges were based off household water usage so well, we can't have that now.