Authored by Katie Spence via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
The Colorado River Basin meanders through seven U.S. states and supplies water to Lake Powell in the Upper Basin and Lake Mead in the Lower Basin. In turn, these reservoirs deliver water and power to millions of Americans.
They’re also going dry.
Indeed, on Aug. 16, 2021, the Bureau of Reclamation issued the first Level One Shortage Condition in the Lower Basin when Lake Mead fell below 1075 feet.
Then, in March 2022, the bureau reported that Lake Powell fell below the target elevation of 3,525 feet for the first time since the 1960s.
Pointedly, these drops threaten hydropower generation and municipal water needs for 40 million Americans.
And while Congress has taken steps to address the flagging water supply, a 20-year megadrought and unsustainable allotments are hampering its efforts.
In 1999, Lake Powell averaged a water elevation of almost 3,681 feet, and Lake Mead was almost near capacity at 1,220 feet near the dam.
After more than 20 years of drought, the West has officially entered a megadrought (meaning 20 or more years), and Lake Powell’s water level is down almost 150 feet. Lake Mead’s water level is down nearly 176 feet.
Indeed, the period from 2000 to 2021 was the driest on record for many states in the West.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) designated 63 out of 64 Colorado counties as natural disaster areas due to drought and declared natural disaster areas in several Wyoming counties.
In Mancos Valley, an area considered a Colorado agricultural utopia with cooler weather and “plenty” of water, streams ran at half the average flow, reducing water for hundreds of farmers and ranchers.
Moreover, headwaters for the Colorado River Basin start in Colorado and Wyoming, meaning the lack of water didn’t just affect the two states.
“Water conditions on the river depend largely on snowmelt in the basin’s northern areas [of Colorado and Wyoming],” states a Congressional Research Service report (CRS).
Still, it could probably pull through if the megadrought was the only problem facing the Colorado River Basin. Unfortunately, federal and state mismanagement compound the megadrought, driving the river to the brink of disaster.
Unsustainable Drains
In 1922, the Basin States of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, and California established the Colorado River Compact to release water from the lakes based on basin storage conditions.
Specifically, under the compact, each basin is allocated 7.5-million-acre feet (MAF) per year—one-acre foot equals about 326,000 gallons—and a certain percentage goes to the Basin States based on water levels in the dams.
At its peak, Glen Canyon Dam on Lake Powell can store 26.2 MAF, and Hoover Dam on Lake Mead can store 26.1 MAF, according to CRS.
In 1944, the United States entered a treaty with Mexico to provide an additional 1.5 MAF from the basin to Mexico.
Markedly, at the onset of the compacts, federal and state governments assumed that river flows would average 16.4 MAF per year, states CRS. But that turned out to be a deeply flawed assumption.
From 1906 to 2020, the actual river flows averaged 13.9 MAF, but consumption and losses averaged approximately 15 MAF. Demand outpaced supply.
Drought and Hydroelectric Plants
According to the Department of Energy, hydropower is primarily used for ramping energy flexibility and represents less than 6.7 percent of U.S. electricity generation capacity.
In other words, if an area relies on solar and exceeds capacity, or the sun sets, hydropower can “ramp up” energy production quickly—hydropower provides approximately 40 percent of black start resources (restoring a power station to operation without relying on the external electric power transmission network after a total or partial shutdown).
It’s also considered one of the “cleanest” and “cheapest” forms of energy.
However, hydroelectricity generation depends on funneling large amounts of water from elevated heights through power plants typically found inside dams, according to the Water Resources Research Center, making significant river systems a vital resource.
Read more here…
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Shit! Fuck! Dammit!!
Looks to me like Global Warming is a FACT!!
All you fuckers who for years have been posting that GW is fake news can just GO TO HELL!!
Front page headline in today’s NJ Shit Ledger ===> “NJ is drying up”. I might be dead next week thanks to you bastards. Thanks for nuthin’.
turned the tap on, we have water…
Wanna buy some!?!?
well,stucky will be one less person sucking up our resources so there is a positive to everything–
at least you’ll be a nice looking corpse–
have your family post a pic so that we can say goodbye–
Your welcome .
Meanwhile, Pakistan has record flooding from the monsoon, and we’ve gotten strong monsoons in the Tucson area…The West has periodic 100 year droughts…
Climate change is NOT fake news … in fact, the Earth’s climate has been changing since the beginning of the Creation …
BUT … and this is the important point — AGW — the real agenda behind the scenes since the 1960s or thereabouts — IS a total fraud …
For insight into the real causes of climate change — which occurs in lengthy cycles — try reading beyond the MSM … https://electroverse.co is one such source of information … and it’s all based on solar cycles …
Otherwise — how does Al the Gore and his psycho friends in the climate change grift explain things like the ‘little ice age’ in the 18th Century …
Meanwhile, too, there’s the matter of the volcano that erupted in the Pacific Ocean back in January …
When those peeps come crawling to Texas thirsty looking for a drink of water , they will dry up Texas.
Sign reads:
Turn around!
Go Back!
Quicksand!
Tex…it’s already happening. Was at Lake Travis recently and it’s extremely low. The cabin I stayed in restricted our water usage. Went to store to buy bottled water and they were sold out.
HAARP controlled and planned
I guess giant cities with increasing populations of people escaping blue cities and growing crops like cotton in the frickin desert isn’t such a bright idea.
Yes, and growing water intensive crops like almonds in CA…
That’s more of a result of other water theft than of Colorado water theft (and government encouragement of farming).
For 30 years I have been watching the planes spray us with chemtrails always wondering what the plan was, they always spray before a storm. Why is that I asked myself. To stop the rain of course. If your trying to exterminate 7 billion people what’s the easiest way? Think about that, and if you want to know more go to Geoengineering.com and Dane Wiggington will tell you all about it.
Wiggington is a true believer in Global Warming (not the intentional geoengineering kind, but the unintentional anthropogenic, blame fossil fuels & plant food kind).
We get sprayed and still get rain. Not sure if we might have gotten more, or if something is now in the soil everywhere that shouldn’t be. One way or the other, a crime against humanity.
This is an awesome video,” The Dimming”. Is an excellent documentary on geoengineering. It would not link.
Here … try this link …
Looks like they will have to start watering down those cocktails in Vegas with bottled stuff going forward. And if you think the blackouts and inability to charge your taxpayer-funded toy car are a problem now…..
Horseshit.
https://dissident-mag.com/2022/08/21/we-could-stop-mexican-immigration-drug-trafficking-cartel-violence-and-our-water-problems-in-one-twist-of-a-spigot/
Oak forest in my area of central coast california has large numbers of dead or dying trees. Recent excursions would put the number around 70 – 75%.
Of course, next year or the one after, when we get a quadruple monsoon due to el niño, with brutal mudslides and reservoirs overflowing, the blame will be CLIMATE CHANGE!!!! OMG news at 11