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Leaking Las Vegas: Lake Mead At Record Lows, "We Have To Change"
This is it, warns one water advocate, "it really does (make critical) the fact that we have to start changing." Lake Mead water levels have sunk to their lowest levels on record (below the levels when the dam was built) at 1075 feet. This is a major problem, as USA Today reports, since Las Vegas water authority's current "straws" glean water from 1,050 feet and 1,000 feet - leaving the first straw just 25 feet away from pulling in air. With the drought only set to get worse as the summer begins, the water wars are just beginning as Lower-basin states are still taking more than the river system can sustain.
Bad and getting worse...
Lake Mead sunk to a record low Tuesday night, falling below the point that would trigger a water-supply shortage if the reservoir doesn't recover soon.
...in the long run, as a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation spokeswoman said, "We still need a lot more water."
The reservoir stores water for parts of Arizona, Southern California, southern Nevada and northern Mexico — all of which have endured a 15-year drought that continues.
...
But Tuesday's record low signals that Colorado River water users consume more than the river provides, said water-policy manager Drew Beckwith of the Western Resource Advocates, a nonprofit environmental law and policy organization.
"This is the check-engine light," Beckwith said. "It really does (make critical) the fact that we have to start changing."
For Las Vegas, the record reinforces the need for a nearly $1.5 billion project to tap deeper into Lake Mead. The Southern Nevada Water Authority soon will complete a 3-mile tunnel that will suck water from an 860-foot elevation level. The plan also includes a pumping station.
...
The water authority's current "straws" glean water from 1,050 feet and 1,000 feet. Lake Mead hovers around 1,075 feet Wednesday — leaving the first straw just 25 feet away from pulling in air.
Leaders launched the third intake project about 10 years ago, seeking to reach better-quality water at deeper depths. Water closer to the surface is warmer and requires more treatment to bring it to drinking quality, said Bronson Mack, a spokesman for the water authority.
* * *
Drought or no drought, the Colorado River is over allocated, Beckwith said.
Lower-basin states take more than the river system can sustain.
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they can print water can't they?
Gay Marriage is a right granted you by 9 people in black robes(5 of them anyway).
Who gives a **** about water you mouthbreathing troglodytes?
A majority of men are spineless, docile things that are content with being directed by authority figures in life.
The problem with the experiment of the US of A is that there weren't enough learned men who understood the value of autonomy and liberty, and too many children looking for a surrogate teat. A nation of children is what we have, and what we get is what we deserve.
No spine. No mind. No rights.
Men are not born as spineless, dreaming jellyfish. They are TRAINED to become submissive, by those who coerce their obedience, first with complete physical control, then by food, sex, and control of access to the necessities and pleasures of life.
The great challenges of our age arise as the last of the Untrained are finally dying of old age: those persons who matured without the constant companionship of Approved Thought fed to them by mass media voice-overs. Partly this may be an accident that resources scarcity is coming to a head at just this time, or perhaps our problems are no longer being quietly solved in the background because we have been slowly losing the capacity to solve them as fewer individuals in each generation are capable of independent thought. But either way, the cause is not culpable moral choice by the victims, so much as by those who victimize. You know who they are. The Masters Of The Universe, the Powers That Be, long since realized that rule through direct force is far less efficient and more problematic than rule through guile, subterfuge, and deceit.
^^^That was sarcasm btw...
"Do not, my friends, become addicted to water. It will take hold of you, and you will resent its absence!"
Buy the dip!
If organized crime was still running Vegas this problem would have been addressed sooner. I'm sure 'the family' would have found ways to deter water usage. Vegas would be a much smaller city with a low crime rate.
LV will be a disaster of biblical proportions. a city built on gambling when gambling becomes ubiquitious, a city built on one source of water, when that source dries up. the real question is where do these people go when the game is over. LA, Phoenix and Denver will have waves of refugees. another housing crash awaits, whats a 1/2million dollar home built of a oiece of desert worth when there is no water? thats a housing crash of immense proportions. and to make matters even more immediate a natural occurence such as an earthquake could divert an already diminished water flow. in instances like these the water in the CO river bed may just simply disappear into a crack in the earth, if you think this is hyperbole, just visualize the end of the CO river, the current river never makes it to the gulf of CA, it just disappears. that point at which the magician mother nature makes the water disappear will move farther north, much farther
"LV will be a disaster of biblical proportions."
I agree. Lots of pain. And meanwhile lots of folks will burn energy pointing fingers (and never will we see the true enemy: growth).
The next online internet Las Vegas vacation special will include a shovel to dig a six foot ditch to stay cool. Water can be extracted using a cigarette filter attached to a straw.
/sarc
Those cigarette filters can also double as ear plugs so you don't get hearing damage when the cops shoot your ass.
Moderation is always good advice for people and land use . Too much of a good thing over an extended time period can come back to bite you ,sooner or later.If you drink too much for some time your liver is going to be fucked up beyond repair. Technology will also speed up this same scenario in India and China.They may even export food to others but at what cost?Deserts can expand at their own pace ,they do not need our help to speed up the process.
We have to empty the lake to find out what's in it
Can you pass the pepper with my salt Mead?
Maybe, like, Jimmy Hoffa?
@ pine_marten -
That "Buy the dip" of yours (time stamp 16:54) made me LOL (not lol). T/y for a good laugh.
"We" Illegals and homebuilders.
Salton Sea II - Dessicated Boogaloo
What are the long term contingency plans for nuclear power plants in the area with respect to water supply?
Palo Verde uses Phoenix municipal wastewater. Diablo Canyon uses sea water.
LET THE MEGA-MIGRATIONS BEGIN!!!!!!
Meh, I call bullshit alarmist reaction on this.
Look at the first chart, which shows we're way past the inflection point on those curves and the water level drop is getting less each month. In fact, by mid-July, the water level is flat or rising for the rest of the year. I presume that's due to rain from the monsoon thunderstorms in the upper basin in summer. I think Vegas is good for the rest of the year. What happens in winter though will certainly decide whether Vegas has to adjust their water-wasting ways by next spring.
Where is liquidity when you need it most? We need them to print more water for us right now.
Look on the bright side. Californians will now understand the economics of physical bullion supply and demand, expressed in gallons.
And help me with the math here. We have 2 straws at different depths. Straw 1 goes dry, and SLAPCHOP! - ConsumptIon drops by 50%.
Solved.
/sarc
Good point.
I like to think about it like this:
When I get a milkshake, and put a straw in it, the level drops. If I was freaking out when I only had a half inch of shake left, that would destroy all my pleasure in drinking the milkshake in the first place. They should be enjoying what they got instead of having a panic attack that it might run out sometime.
If there was a problem, why would those multibillion dollar hotels have all those pools and slides and foutains? I understand that there are some really smart people running those companies. If there was a real problem, they wouldn't waste water, would they?
Ever see the 007 movie Quantum of Solace?
What if the US government (who BTW just Federalized all water in the US),
was purposefully diverting the water, so the water was so low
right before JADE HELM?
The Earth has exactly the same amount of water
that it did 1 Billion years ago. It just gets distributed, differently, throughout the ages.
As far as H20 is concerned, the Earth is a closed system.
And if only HAARP would stop messing with things, CA might get some rain.
Who knows: 10 years from now, they'll probably be complaining about mudslides in CA.
Heck, just a couple years ago, they were complaining about the gigantic drought in the Southeast and TX.
I keep hearing that Chiffon margarine lady saying "its NOT nice to fool mother nature"................
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijVijP-CDVI
I have some problems with FDR,but the Dam building was inspired and good economic sense.
Put people to work,give them a paycheck and dignity.
He realized you can only push people so far....
Bullshit. The bankers destroyed the econmy and then they give you a government hand out job? WTF?
They fed the slaves in the south too, so it's all good. They would have died without food, right? At least they had the dignity of work. Ha ha.
Like Greece...they need to vote on a whether to continue to deal with a bankrupt/sinking Lake Mead or take their business elsewhere...
WTF, what's all the alarm about? They still got 25 feet!
Shouldn't Nevada be under water by now due to the rising oceans? What's the hold up?
Speaking of that, why isn't Manhattan under water yet?
This is more than an environmental issue, it is also a population issue. Until the population issue is addressed, quality of life will decline. CA Governor Brown does not have any clue regarding this. The boy is lost!
Here's a thought:
LONGER STRAWS!
Lake Mead sunk to a record low Tuesday night, falling below the point that would trigger a water-supply shortage if the reservoir doesn't recover soon.
...in the long run, as a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation [blonde] spokeswoman said, "We still need a lot more water."
Yeah, no shit, Ms. Sherlock - usually if you're in a desert, you need a lot more water.... and yes, you have long legs, they go all the way from your ass to the ground....
California is right next to a rather large body of water ...I think it's called the Pacific Ocean. Maybe instead of a bullet train to Bishop the state would like to build some desalination plants. Nah probably not.
depop
^ agenda
Ever take a walk outside? A lot of people need "saving."
Faeriedust, You are correct in regard to the population situation being worse in the neighboring 3rd world. However, please remember the desperation in these corrupt regions cause mass migrations to resource rich countries, contributing to the strains these historically resource rich countries are experiencing. You and I know the golbal population issue is HUGE and none of the world's leaders want to put it on the table for public discussion. I sense these leaders see these masses as consumers and, in their opinion, more consumers is great for business. Dangerous policy in my opinion.
What may not be obvious to many is... the volume of water available is less the deeper you go. And so, the water level will drop faster the further it drops. Not good.