With all the doom, gloom, panic, click bait, on & on in the nation/world, I just don't pay much attention to a lot of it. Amplify all the problems when the west coast is involved, so I really let a lot of those stories get by me.
But... I've been watching vids of the Lake levels & it doesn't look like it's one of scare stories that; if this rate it'll be dry in 10 years. Heck, at the the rate Mead is dropping it'll be dry a lot sooner, way sooner.
Not trying to preach doom but this looks to be a very serious situation for all that are served water & electricity from it. Are there many, if any, plan B's & C's in place?
I've lived next to Lk. Mead most of my life being a native of the Las Vegas Valley. Here are a few facts and illustrations concerning what we're facing. As you can see, Las Vegas will have access to the lakes water after all other users are left dry. Unfortunately, with that being the case, our local leaders are unconcerned about growth and the population influx will continue unabated.
Lake Mead 1983 - elevation 1,221.4' - Highest water level, spillway gates reached 6/27/22 - elevation 1,043.35' - Current water level (178' below spillway limit) Minimum elevation for full power generation is elevation 1,050' (We are now below that). We are currently in the lake level phase called "Inactive Pool"; the elevation below which full power can no longer be generated but water can still be released downstream. At elevation 950' power generation ceases. At elevation 900' we hit "Dead Pool"; no water can pass through the dam to Arizona, California, or Mexico. Water is currently dropping at about 8" per day. Of the five Marinas and that were historically operating Hemingway Harbor near Boulder City is the only one still open with 2 lanes of pipe mat ramps limited to shallow draft vessels under 24' length.
Las Vegas has three water intakes to pull water from the lake, the highest one is now out of the water. Intake #2 will be out of the water at about 1.050'. The newest and deepest intake #3 can draw water from down to about 875' which is below "Dead Pool" and why Las Vegas is not in danger of losing it's water supply for quite some time.
problem with taking water from the Great Lakes is that they share a border with Canada. Now it's taking water from two countries. Do you think Canada would just say "take all you want eh?" Not a snowballs chance in hell
Really now, what could they do about it?
You ask that, knowing Trudeau is in charge up there! Surely you jest.
I don't have any idea of what they could do to stop us. Declare war, file a lawsuit? Maybe someone can rattle ol' Steve Redgwell's cage up on the Canada forum and ask him.
Patriotism (and religion) is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
Seven states use the water from the Colorado River. They all use it for drinking water, agriculture, and even industry. There are a lot more people than when the Hoover Dam was built in the 1920's and 30's, a whole lot more. A lot of people moved to Arizona to retire. Los Angeles county went from 2,200,000 people in 1930 to over 10 million today. Five times more people. Same can probably be said of all seven states using the water. More people using the same finite amount of water.
Desalinization of sea water is the only solution for the Southwest and Northwestern Mexico. Now the Rio Grande is starting to dry up. Same problem, more people and same amount of water. Another solution is using water from the Great Lakes piped over the Rockies to fill up the sources of the Colorado River so the water can go downstream.
Even Florida has a water problem. Too much well water is being used and causing sinkholes.
Just a little info about golf courses and water. Just FYI..........................there's definitely some controversy as to why golf courses are allowed to use as much water as they do.
San Diego Municipal courses (2015 story, might have changed a bit since, and my BOLD)
Quote
The Torrey Pines Golf Course uses recycled water. But the city's other two courses, at Balboa Park and Mission Bay, used about 116 million gallons of tap water during the ten months ending April 30, records show.
Phoenix, a bit more recent news. They use a mix of water including a lot of groundwater and CAP water:
Quote
State records show there are 165 golf courses in the Phoenix area. They use various sources of water, including treated wastewater and Colorado River water. But more than half of the area's courses rely at least partially on groundwater, together pumping roughly as much from wells as the average consumption of 130,000 single-family homes.
Las Vegas, 2017. Seems they use brown water primarily, but something to think about is that treated effluent is not going back into the Colorado River as it would be if it wasn't used on a golf course
Quote
The water itself is “brown” — effluent water straight from the county wastewater treatment plant, not drinking water from Lake Mead. It’s high-quality re-use, but it still contains salts that course superintendents have to deal with.
One golf course in Utah, story from March this year. "Cutting back" to +/- 100 Million gallons used per year (enough for about 1000 households at the ave. of 300 gal/day/household) Multiply that by 120 or so courses in Utah. And Utah ranks as one of the fastest growing States in the West.
Quote
That’s why the course is upgrading the irrigation system, which previously used about 145 million gallons per year. Golf course managers, players and ordinary citizens alike are realizing that such numbers aren’t sustainable. Entrada hopes to get down to somewhere in the range of 105 million to 115 million gallons a year using the most innovative methods, and not a moment too soon.
The desert is a true treasure for him who seeks refuge from men and the evil of men. In it is contentment In it is death and all you seek (Quoted from "The Bleeding of the Stone" Ibrahim Al-Koni)
problem with taking water from the Great Lakes is that they share a border with Canada. Now it's taking water from two countries. Do you think Canada would just say "take all you want eh?" Not a snowballs chance in hell
Really now, what could they do about it?
But we would only take water from our part of the lake. Not our fault if their water wants to take a trip to the US southwest, and slips across the border without permission.
WGAF if commiefornia dries up and blows away? There's somrething about the thought of the Los Angeles area looking like the Salton Sea that gives me the warm fuzzies. I stopped just west of the state line on my trip eastbound back to Tennessee in 1980 and did my part to help the desert bloom.
When it dries up, where will 2/3 of the population move to?
The desert is a true treasure for him who seeks refuge from men and the evil of men. In it is contentment In it is death and all you seek (Quoted from "The Bleeding of the Stone" Ibrahim Al-Koni)
WGAF if commiefornia dries up and blows away? There's somrething about the thought of the Los Angeles area looking like the Salton Sea that gives me the warm fuzzies. I stopped just west of the state line on my trip eastbound back to Tennessee in 1980 and did my part to help the desert bloom.
When it dries up, where will 2/3 of the population move to?
TN???
Back to Mexico?
Perhaps the commies in Cali will figure out Trump's wall was not such a bad idea after all.
Seriously, This is what happens when you artificially alter a region to make it attractive for growth. Lots of .gov officials and developers make $trillions. Then the water runs out and the little guys are left holding the bag, just like any Ponzi scheme.
You can not steal water from the Columbia or the Mississippi, because in either case it would destroy the estuary. And also, it would give California standing to sue for water rights.
All the sudden, Boise Id (name any city on either river system) has to prohibit growth because growth in Boise will negatively impact water flow at the mouth of the Columbia and Cali will not get the water they are now demanding.
This is really nothing new. Cali has been trying to devise a way to steal water from the PNW for at least fifty years that I am aware of.
They should have closed and locked the gates on Cali fifty years ago. But the big boys have been making a ton of money from the growth. Now much water does Silicone Valley use? But hell, who cares, computer chip factories make lots of money.
Sure they could build desalination plants to cover the shortfall. But they do not have the power to run the cities now. Where will they get the energy to run pumps to drive reverse osmosis plants?
And where pray tell will they dump the salt enriched waste. The EPA will have a field day with that.
I think California's glory days are behind her.
People who choose to brew up their own storms bitch loudest about the rain.
A pipeline from the Great Lakes over the Continental Divide to the Green/Colorado River is unbelievably ridiculous. Imagine the capacity it would take to replace the flow of these rivers. We can't even get our current government to build a pipeline to pump oil at $110+ a barrel. What do you think a barrel of water is worth?
It would be quite an undertaking and I am certainly not qualified to say whether it could be done but I believe it could. We have a huge population of people terribly short of water and we go off to the mid-east and Europe and spend trillions of dollars on savages that couldn't maintain a stable government in a thousand years.
Patriotism (and religion) is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
All the waste water needs to be treated and reused. It doesn’t sound appetizing but in actuality every drop of water on this planet has been pissed or chit out countless times over the last 4 billion years. We have the technology to treat sewage water back to drinking water. Golf courses are ridiculous in the desert ! Humans and agriculture are the only legitimate uses of water in the southwest. Lawns and golf courses need to be banned from using irrigation water. Every drop of water possible needs to be recovered and reused.
‘TO LEARN WHO RULES OVER YOU, SIMPLY FIND OUT WHO YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO CRITICIZE’
Conspiracy theorists are the ones who see it all coming…
I read somewhere that far from being a drought, it’s pretty much a return to normal for the west with the last 150 years or so being the wettest period out there in the last few thousand years. If that’s the case, well, schit is going to have to change.
Interesting
Here in the shadow of the Sierras we are in the worst drought in 1,200 years. They can gauge this by the tree rings of the ancient bristlecone pines.
Hunt with Class and Classics
Religion: A founder of The Church of Spray and Pray
Acquit v. t. To render a judgment in a murder case in San Francisco... EQUAL, adj. As bad as something else. Ambrose Bierce “The Devil's Dictionary”
With all the doom, gloom, panic, click bait, on & on in the nation/world, I just don't pay much attention to a lot of it. Amplify all the problems when the west coast is involved, so I really let a lot of those stories get by me.
But... I've been watching vids of the Lake levels & it doesn't look like it's one of scare stories that; if this rate it'll be dry in 10 years. Heck, at the the rate Mead is dropping it'll be dry a lot sooner, way sooner.
Not trying to preach doom but this looks to be a very serious situation for all that are served water & electricity from it. Are there many, if any, plan B's & C's in place?
I've lived next to Lk. Mead most of my life being a native of the Las Vegas Valley. Here are a few facts and illustrations concerning what we're facing. As you can see, Las Vegas will have access to the lakes water after all other users are left dry. Unfortunately, with that being the case, our local leaders are unconcerned about growth and the population influx will continue unabated.
Lake Mead 1983 - elevation 1,221.4' - Highest water level, spillway gates reached 6/27/22 - elevation 1,043.35' - Current water level (178' below spillway limit) Minimum elevation for full power generation is elevation 1,050' (We are now below that). We are currently in the lake level phase called "Inactive Pool"; the elevation below which full power can no longer be generated but water can still be released downstream. At elevation 950' power generation ceases. At elevation 900' we hit "Dead Pool"; no water can pass through the dam to Arizona, California, or Mexico. Water is currently dropping at about 8" per day. Of the five Marinas and that were historically operating Hemingway Harbor near Boulder City is the only one still open with 2 lanes of pipe mat ramps limited to shallow draft vessels under 24' length.
Las Vegas has three water intakes to pull water from the lake, the highest one is now out of the water. Intake #2 will be out of the water at about 1.050'. The newest and deepest intake #3 can draw water from down to about 875' which is below "Dead Pool" and why Las Vegas is not in danger of losing it's water supply for quite some time.
Clark County is also stealing the water from northern Nevada. Most of the State's population resides there, and the politicians are actively engaged in water theft to keep Vegas healthy and wealthy.
I'm not flaming you, NVhunter, you're one of the real great guys on the forum.
Hunt with Class and Classics
Religion: A founder of The Church of Spray and Pray
Acquit v. t. To render a judgment in a murder case in San Francisco... EQUAL, adj. As bad as something else. Ambrose Bierce “The Devil's Dictionary”