Submitted by Tyler Durden on 08/23/2015 15:50 -0400
For months we have been warning that “Vegas is screwed” as water levels continue to plunge in its most crucial reservoirs. Non-government experts are waving red flags that something must be done (and even NASA scientists fear the worst) while the government remains quiet. And then just 3 months ago, Lake Mead water levels mysteriously plunged to levels that were perilously close to emergency for Vegas water supply, then quickly reverted after the government confirmed that a malfunctioning indicator was at fault.
Now, we note, having given them time to ‘fix’ whatever problem there may be, Lake Mead water levels have not been reported since July 9th – six weeks??!!
As Jim R notes rather eloquently,
In the spirit of data obfuscation a la China and Obama, Lake Mead’s daily reporting has not been posted for six (6!) weeks.
At last report (July 9) the lake was 0.6 inch above the critical 1075’ level that will initiate a new round of water wars in the Southwest, including a possible crimp in the IV drip that sustains Phoenix and Tucson.
As a reminder,
If the water level is below 1,075 feet elevation – 4 feet below today’s level – by January 1, 2016, it will trigger a federal water emergency… and water rationing.
Las Vegas Review Journal reported that forecasters expect the level to drop to 1073 feet by June, before Lake Powell would begin to release more water. Assuming “average or better snow accumulations in the mountains that feed the Colorado River – something that’s happened only three times in the past 15 years,” the water level on January 1 is expected to be barely above the federal shortage level.
So, We have one simple question – why did the government stop reporting Lake Mead Water Levels six weeks ago?
They’ve installed a pipe deep down in the lake to extract water so now there’s no need to worry until you see fish flapping in the mud. However, the power will be out long before that and when the sheople can no longer charge their iCrap they’ll move to someplace else.
No climate change here, either, move on…
Alex
What difference does it make? Let them drink dirt.
Geez Anon, you’re being awfully insensitive to the desert golfers like our very own SSS.
Well, who KNEW that building communities of a million people or more (sometimes MANY more) on the deserts of the Southwest, and growing water-guzzling crops in these places, would result in crippling droughts and groundwater depletion?
Climate change, my ass. There may or may not be climate change, but whether there is or not, it is increasingly evident that drought is the normal condition in the southwest and always has been. The only thing that enabled the settlement of 50,000,000 in the southwestern states is the construction of a water-storage and delivery system that would make the ancient Pharoah’s eyes glaze over.
And the only thing that has made all that possible, is the availability of copious quantities of cheap fossil fuels that have underwritten every system we’ve built in this country. It is unsettling to consider what even a 10% drop in the amount of fuel could do to this country, and to our abiity to maintain our critical infrastructure, including the water storage and delivery systems of the west.
If I were in the southwest, I’d now be looking to GTFO, while the getting is good.
Agriculture in CA uses 80% of water consumption, for growing crops that require a lot of water (rather than growing crops that use less water); CA is 50% desert; 20th century was a wet century when compared to last 1,000 years; add the golf courses to maintain their ‘green’ lush grass; washing cars; watering lawns; mismanagement by politicians of water use; sending river water into the ocean to save a couple of useless fish, and the biggie is the overall population increase in CA and Southwest. ETC.
WTF do you expect.
BTW, per Satellites by RSS and UAH, earth has not warmed in 18 years and 6 months.
Sattelites are deniers. They obviously have not heard that there is a consensus of 97% of climate scientists that there has been a anthropogenic warming in the last 18 years.
Lake Mead – assuming they fixed the indicator, I can guess why the Gov’t hasn’t reported the water level…….the water level is OK; they would only report Bad News in order to splash it over the media and blame it on Global Warming (BS). Fear Mongering doesn’t work with good news.
cliff….that was funny!!!
The levels of water in Lakes Mead and Powell are RISING due to heavy May rains and snow in Colorado. RISING. End of story for you ignoramuses.
The crisis of water in the Southwest has been delayed officially by the “government” until late 2017. I don’t have an answer to you nimrods who cling to totally false stories such as this one, except one: it fits the story line that you want to believe. Get a fucking life.
@ Indentured Servant: Having fun with the drought and wildfires in the Pacific Northwest, including Spokane? Love that fire ash in your air? Cough, cough. Had a wildfire in the Catalinas back of my home a couple of weeks ago. That “lack of rain and water” in the Southwest which you preach to the TBP choir so often put it out in one downpour. Heh.
SSS, Yes, quite a bit of fun actually. Happens every year. I’ve made a couple of comments about it this weekend.
I’ve never once preached about the lack of rain or water in the SW unless you can point to a comment refuting that. My comments tend to be more in the vein of wasting water on frivolous shit in the desert and living beyond ones means in the desert.
http://www.fourwinds10.net/siterun_data/environment/plants_and_animals/news.php?q=1438960662
Aug. 7, 2015
Sea animals are dying off in massive numbers along the Pacific Coastline from Baja, Mexico all the way to Alaska, and there may be nothing anyone can do about it.
A combination of man-made and natural causes are killing off bottlenose dolphins, sardines, sea birds, plankton, krill, salmon, sea lions, starfish, and brown pelicans in record numbers.
What’s worse, the planet may be forced to do without them, as their absence may be the new normal.
A huge mass of warm water scientists are calling “the blob” has developed off the coast starting in 2013 when the normal winter storms from Alaska didn’t show up to cool down the Pacific.
Since then, it has spread over 2,000 miles long to cover the entire Pacific Coastline and expanded 500 miles wide.
The warm water is killing off bottom-of-the-food-chain species like plankton and krill, allowing poisonous algal blooms to spread and encouraging a starfish disease to turn into an epidemic.
It may also be the cause of California’s historic four-year megadrought.
Meanwhile, industrial and radioactive waste from the Japanese tsunami in 2011 and the dumping of modern chemical and agricultural debris are combining with a monster El Nino to push existing species to the brink of extinction.
As the warm water spreads, larger creatures like sea lions are forced to travel further to find food, which means they have to leave their babies behind and that’s resulted in a record number of sea lion pup strandings this year.
SAUSALITO, CA – FEBRUARY 24: Sick and malnourished California sea lion pups sit in an enclosure at the Marine Mammal Center on February 24, 2015 in Sausalito, California. For the third winter in a row, hundreds of sick and starving California sea lions are washing up on California shores, with over 900 found and treated at rehabilitation centers throughout the state since the beginning of the year. The Marine Mammal Center is currently caring for over 162 of the emaciated pups. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Sea birds like Cassin’s auklets, who eat the absent plankton, have been reported to be washing up onshore in numbers nearing 100,000; and that’s just what’s been reported this year alone.
A mystery disease that turns starfish into goo is being spread by the unnaturally warm water and is being blamed for the deaths of thousands of the creatures.
Bottlenose dolphins have also been dying off in recent numbers in an event directly related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Commercial fisheries, meanwhile, have overfished the sardine population reducing them to 10 percent of their 2006 population.
ATHENS – MAY 20: Fresh sardines are displayed at the central fish market May 20, 2006 in Athens, Greece. A recent report by The Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) accuses international fishing organisations of failing to prevent global over-fishing. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
The number of salmon returning to spawn in their native rivers and streams has been has reduced by half, and brown pelicans are so traumatized they’ve stopped breeding altogether.
Meanwhile, scientists are seeing an influx of tropical species like sunfish and Pacific Whiting or hake and its these changes that are causing scientists to think this might be the new normal.
National and international groups have taken recent action to halt overfishing, protect seafloor habitats and establish protected marine environments, but it may not be enough.
New tropical species have started to move into the Pacific and the change in ocean climate may favor them over established species.
Our children may not have the same Pacific Ocean we enjoy now.
http://www.inquisitr.com/2302738/massive-die-off-of-ocean-animals-turning-pacific-ocean-into-desert-go-see-them-now-before-theyre-extinct/
This could happen;
1. April 9th, 2016 — The LAST drop of water is gone from Lake Mead.
2. April 11th, 2016 — It rains heavily, and there is one inch of water in Lake Mead.
3. April 12th, 2016 — SSS reports on TBP — “Lake Mead water levels increased one thousand percent yesterday! So, fuck off, and let them water my golf course!”
Tuesday is Soylent Green Day.
Monday, Wednesday and Friday are water ration days- water will be turned on between 10:00am to 1:00pm. No exceptions.
That will be the norm in 20 years if you believe the doom sayers, do any of you believe this? I can tell you that in highly populated places like in India’s larger cities the water rationing is already being implemented. Soylent Green, maybe.
I_S
Spokane gets an average of 17″ of precip a year, Tucson 12″. BFD. We’ve had this discussion before, but on a different twist, wh
“Why Has The Government Stopped Reporting Lake Mead Water Levels?”
For the EXACT same reasons they’ve stopped reporting on true UNEMPLOYMENT NUMBERS, GDP FIGURES, INFLATION RATES and JUDICIARY TRANSPARENCY RATINGS:
…REALITY is D-I-S-M-A-L !!!
SSS,
LMFAO, Oh hell yes, Lake Mead’s in great fucking shape, no drought there. You my friend are experiencing a drought all right, blood flow to your fucking brain, dementia is a bitch!
If I were in the southwest, I’d now be looking to GTFO, while the getting is good.
Oh well, great advice, but where exactly?
For instance, people from MENA countries are on the move ehm, to Europe, and we are not happy…
SSS,
LMFAO, Oh hell yes, Lake Mead’s in great fucking shape, no drought there. You my friend are experiencing a drought all right, blood flow to your fucking brain, dementia is a bitch!
—-Sensetti
I live in Tucson. Even with zero rain, 50 years of water left in the aquifers under the city, and the water levels are RISING. Much more water in the aquifers to the west of the city. Centuries of water, asshole.
You and Indentured Servant can get the fuck out of my face on the water issue.
California is using up all of the water from Lake Mead to grow alfalfa for China. China needs alfalfa to feed dairy cows. China doesn’t have sufficient land to grow their own. We all lose over very bad deals made by government.