{"id":1415,"date":"2014-01-06T14:28:37","date_gmt":"2014-01-06T19:28:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alexprudhomme.com\/?p=1415"},"modified":"2014-01-06T14:28:37","modified_gmt":"2014-01-06T19:28:37","slug":"14-yr-drought-stressing-vegas-lake-mead-largest-reservoir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alexprudhomme.com\/2014\/01\/06\/14-yr-drought-stressing-vegas-lake-mead-largest-reservoir\/","title":{"rendered":"14 yr drought stressing Vegas + Lake Mead, our largest reservoir"},"content":{"rendered":"

excellent, sobering piece in today’s NYT:
\n 
\nColorado River Drought Forces a Painful Reckoning for States<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n
Jim Wilson\/The New York Times<\/div>\n

To help the Colorado, federal authorities this year will for the first time reduce the water flow into Lake Mead, the nation\u2019s largest reservoir, created by Hoover Dam.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

By\u00a0MICHAEL WINES<\/a><\/h6>\n
Published: January 5, 2014n_top><\/span><\/h6>\n
\n

LAKE MEAD, Nev. \u2014 The sinuous Colorado River and its slew of man-made reservoirs from the Rockies to southern Arizona are being sapped by 14 years of drought nearly unrivaled in 1,250 years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n
Multimedia<\/h6>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\"\"Graphic<\/a><\/div>\n
Southwest\u2019s Dwindling Water Supply<\/a><\/h6>\n
<\/h6>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\nThe once broad and blue river has in many places dwindled to a murky brown trickle. Reservoirs have shrunk to less than half their capacities, the canyon walls around them ringed with white mineral deposits where water once lapped. Seeking to stretch their allotments of the river, regional water agencies are recycling sewage effluent, offering rebates to tear up grass lawns and subsidizing less thirsty appliances from dishwashers to shower heads.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

But many experts believe the current drought is only the harbinger of a new, drier era in which the Colorado\u2019s flow will be substantially and permanently diminished.<\/p>\n

Faced with the shortage, federal authorities this year will for the first time decrease the amount of water that flows into Lake Mead, the nation\u2019s largest reservoir, from Lake Powell 180 miles upstream. That will reduce even more the level of Lake Mead, a crucial source of water for cities from Las Vegas to Los Angeles and for millions of acres of farmland.<\/p>\n

Reclamation officials say there is a 50-50 chance that by 2015, Lake Mead\u2019s water will be rationed to states downstream. That, too, has never happened before.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Lake Mead goes below elevation 1,000\u201d \u2014 1,000 feet above sea level \u2014 \u201cwe lose any capacity to pump water to serve the municipal needs of seven in 10 people in the state of Nevada,\u201d said John Entsminger, the senior deputy general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority.<\/p>\n

Since 2008, Mr. Entsminger\u2019s agency has been drilling an $817 million tunnel under Lake Mead \u2014 a third attempt to capture more water as two higher tunnels have become threatened by the lake\u2019s falling level. In September, faced with the prospect that one of the tunnels could run dry before the third one was completed, the authority took emergency measures: still another tunnel, this one to stretch the life of the most threatened intake until construction of the third one is finished.<\/p>\n

These new realities are forcing a profound reassessment of how the 1,450-mile Colorado, the Southwest\u2019s only major river, can continue to slake the thirst of one of the nation\u2019s fastest-growing regions. Agriculture, from California\u2019s Imperial Valley to Wyoming\u2019s cattle herds, soaks up about three-quarters of its water, and produces 15 percent of the nation\u2019s food. But 40 million people also depend on the river and its tributaries, and their numbers are rising rapidly.<\/p>\n

The labyrinthine rules by which the seven Colorado states share the river\u2019s water are rife with potential points of conflict. And while some states have made huge strides in conserving water \u2014 and even reducing the amount they consume \u2014 they have yet to chart a united path through shortages that could last years or even decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no planning for a continuation of the drought we\u2019ve had,\u201d said one expert on the Colorado\u2019s woes, who asked not to be identified to preserve his relationship with state officials. \u201cThere\u2019s always been within the current planning an embedded hope that somehow, things would return to something more like normal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the Colorado during most of Lake Mead\u2019s 78-year history was not normal at all.<\/p>\n

for the rest of the story, see …<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2014\/01\/06\/us\/colorado-river-drought-forces-a-painful-reckoning-for-states.html?hpw&rref=us&_r=0<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

excellent, sobering piece in today’s NYT:   Colorado River Drought Forces a Painful Reckoning for States Jim Wilson\/The New York Times To help the Colorado, federal authorities this year will for the first time reduce the water flow into Lake Mead, the nation\u2019s largest reservoir, created by Hoover Dam. By\u00a0MICHAEL WINES Published: January 5, 2014n_top>…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12247,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n14 yr drought stressing Vegas + Lake Mead, our largest reservoir - Alex Prud'homme<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/alexprudhomme.com\/2014\/01\/06\/14-yr-drought-stressing-vegas-lake-mead-largest-reservoir\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"14 yr drought stressing Vegas + Lake Mead, our largest reservoir - Alex Prud'homme\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"excellent, sobering piece in today’s NYT:   Colorado River Drought Forces a Painful Reckoning for States Jim Wilson\/The New York Times To help the Colorado, federal authorities this year will for the first time reduce the water flow into Lake Mead, the nation\u2019s largest reservoir, created by Hoover Dam. 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