Lake Mead, the reservoir next to Hoover Dam, shrunk to 39 per cent of its capacity last year and was at its lowest level since the dam was built in the 1930s.
Something truly fascinating happens when the water levels drop at Lake Powell, an important waterway shared by Utah and Arizona.
The sandstone that surrounds the lake is a deep reddish color above the water line, but the minerals in the lake’s water turn the stone white, according to the National Park Service. Known as a “bathtub ring,” it provides an accurate reading for the water level using only the naked eye. The more white you can see on the sandstone, the lower the water level.
As is evident in the photos above, water levels have dropped significantly in Lake Powell – as they have all over the Colorado River Basin – since a widespread, long-term drought began in the West. These images, taken last week, show just how far below normal levels the lake has fallen.
For years, Lake Powell’s water levels have been dropping as the West dries out. Now, much of the river basin is in moderate to severe drought, with some areas in danger of falling into extreme drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
Late last year, National Geographic wrote about the lake’s decline. Tree-ring data showed the last millennium had droughts far worse than the West has experienced in the first 15 years of the 2000s. Scientists believe there’s another megadrought coming to the area, and by the year 2100, water levels in the Colorado River Basin will be even lower than they are now. Median estimates project 45 percent less runoff at that time than we’re seeing now, the report added.
Lake Powell serves as a water supplier for 40 million people in seven states, according to NBC News. The reservoir also keeps the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead from flooding.
You know, if they just ran a few garden hoses from the nearby RV park and just let ’em run, in a year or two they’d have this thing dicked. Like, duh…….
Thanks to man 90% of the Colorado is diverted, most of the year the river never makes it to the gulf of California.
The reservoirs are filling with sediment at the same time the water levels are dropping, again, the tribes that used to inhabit the basin died out because of mega droughts 1,000+ years ago. This will be blamed on man caused climate change.
John Wesley Powell’s first trip down the Colorado was an amazing story.
Pulzze Jesus, puleeze Jesus, please make it that they don’t come to my state. Maybe just a little 10.0 quake to finish them off.
If you do this, I promise to put away my toys, ammo, every night.
Californicate was and is a desert fed by irrigation from other states.
There should be a plan to distribute the people from Cali to pre-determined places around the nation. This can be tied in with the ongoing effort by the .gov to multiculturally diversify society.
My plan is to relocate all the liberal Hollywood types to Birmingham Alabama and send the remaining registered democrats to heavily black populated areas of Mississippi and Louisiana. That way both cultures, although different, could experience the joy of each other’s company.
The Latino population can be relocated to Puerto Rico and Guam, so they can merge with and enrich those people, who live in a sadly singular culture of their own making.
All the sweet, horny, gorgeous girls, aged 18-25 can be relocated to Connecticut, because the female gene pool here desperately needs an influx of smokin’ hot goodness to counter the current trend of bitter, homely, fat miserable bitches.
Not worried. Yet.
2011 was a record snowpack year in the Colorado Rockies and in Arizona’s White Mountains. See charts in the article when levels in Lakes Powell and Mead jumped.
Three average and below average years since. Tucson Water uses unused, allocated Colorado River waste water to recharge the aquifers near the city, which have RISEN 90-300 feet in the past 5 years. These aquifers are the second largest in the U.S. and sit underneath a nasty looking desert west of the city and will get the metro area through cutbacks in Colorado River water for several decades.
Arizona knows water management better than any other state. Been at it since the 19th Century. We’ll be fine.
@Lysander…..you and me, well, I think we’re gonna get along juuuuust fine. +1
Triple S says: Arizona knows water management better than any other state. Been at it since the 19th Century. We’ll be fine.
How do you manage something you do not have?
Arizona has more water rights to Colorado river water than California. Arizona sells water to California.
Lake Powell’s water level is higher than it was last year (2014) and higher than it was the previous year (2013). It is also higher than it was 9 and 10 years ago… The reservoirs above Lake Powell are at over 90% full. The current snow pack is at 200% of normal. Why doesn’t Lake Powell release more of it’s water to Lake Mead, since it is at all time lows? Is this all politics? here are the stats:
http://lakepowell.water-data.com/