Lake Mead in Las Vegas, Nevada, is no stranger to taking bad raps. About six years ago, outside magazine published its list of the deadliest National Parks. You guessed it- Lake Mead National Recreation Area topped the list, reporting that the lake was its most dangerous feature, reporting 254 deaths and 6 homicides from 2006 to 2016.
But now, Lake Mead is taking on much more of an ominous tenor, affecting many more lives.
Lake Mead lies at the heart of the most challenging megadrought and human-caused climate change dilemma ever in the U.S.
40 million people in seven neighboring states
40 million people in seven neighboring states – Nevada, California, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming – all directly depend on Lake Mead, the largest man-made reservoir in the United States, stretching 112 miles long. Municipalities, farmers, ranchers, tribes, and recreational lake users all depend on it. Make no mistake about it, if you live in these areas, your life and lifestyle adventures depend directly on Lake Mead for your very survival and pleasure.
Southern Nevada receives nearly 90 percent of its water from the Colorado River, which starts as snowmelt in the Rocky Mountains and then winds itself south for 1,450 miles before it empties into Southern Nevada reservoirs, Lake Mead, and finally the Gulf of California in Mexico.
But now Lake Mead miserably stands as a surreal, largely waterless ghost town, even on usually busy weekends, where boaters not that long ago usually waited very long hours in long lines just to launch their watercraft. Not anymore.
Simply, the historically popular reservoir has transformed into a hauntingly eerie landscape, enclosed in a watery, 30-percent-filled “bathtub,” with a 15-story high, horrid watermark ring encircling it.
The water level of Lake Mead is experiencing the worst drought in centuries and has now receded to a record deficit of over 170 feet – and is dropping rapidly, much faster than experts predicted – since reaching its all-time high-water mark in 1983.
Many environmental scientists now say the lake will never be the same again, and that permanent drought conditions will persist – and that includes neighboring Lake Powell and even the Great Salt Lake.
Visitors are increasingly sporadic on weekends at Lake Mead; you are lucky if you see even clusters of 25 people sunbathing on the banks or talking with friends. Boaters must gingerly navigate shallow water, avoiding numerous islands and sandbars that lurk just below the surface. Countless boats of all types have met their unfortunate demise, and are now largely forgotten, sunken relics scattered over once submerged areas.
Even mobsters and/or their unlucky quarry have allegedly been found decomposing in corroding steel drums, surfacing for the first time from their once deep watery graves, as the lake recedes.
All boat ramps but one, Hemingway Harbor, have now been indefinitely gated and closed. Marina docks have moved where possible (moving a ramp dock costs $2-$3 million every time the water level falls another four feet). Lake Mead trails are basically all closed, at least for the summer season.
Foot-deep, dried cracked mud stands that were once covered in water, extends hundreds of yards off the scorching hot lake banks. Desiccated fish decompose on the banks, reminders of a much better life. Although some waterfowl are present, their food supply is increasingly scarce. Fortunately, that is not so for the only restaurant at Lake Mead Marina- it remains open, but with few customers. But by some quirk of the unknown, apparently, customers enjoy shopping the half-million-dollar new yachts residing on the docks of the marina.
So, if there are any filmmakers out there looking to produce an Academy Award-winning horror film, now is your time…
With approximately 71 percent of the Earth’s surface water-covered, and with the oceans containing about 97 percent of that water, it is both ironic and disturbing that better management of the Earth’s most abundant resource remains elusive and in such a quagmire of collective indecision.
The effects of rampant population growth and distribution increases in visitor levels, and the resulting increased demand for water, combined with unchecked, progressive climate changes are continuing to exact a horrendous toll on the U.S. and world’s water supply, as well as our other natural utilities.
Lake Mead plays a major role in a gigantic water conservation nightmare affecting the entire world.
The dystopian and dark lens portrayals of fictional sci-fi movies, like Mad Max: Fury Road, are not that far off from the potential of post-apocalyptic water wasteland realities in the very near future if conditions persist as they are now.
Most conservation experts contend that we are not sufficiently taking steps to harvest rainwater or technologically designing processes to claim back irrigation water. As a result, combined with inordinate high water usage demands, we are massively depleting our water resources much quicker than our emphasis, zeal, and monied actions for accelerating urban development at all costs.
In addition, so it would appear, projects like making seawater drinkable (called “desalinization”) would be a viable corrective option. But what is frustratingly irksome is there are relatively few such projects proposed or underway. Long-standing proposals, each costing billions of dollars, remain under consideration, but with no measurable constructive action taken. Usually, such efforts are stymied by voiced concerns from opponents that water facilities would kill marine life and drive-up water costs.
Even in the U.S., California, with its expansive ocean coastline, has produced over a long period of time only 12 desalination plants, but only the $922 million plant in Carlsbad – producing 50 million gallons of desalinated water a day – has any significance, and together they are still only a drop in the water bucket in satisfying California’s needs, let alone other states.
Although local community water actions, such as changing your watering clocks each season, removing unused grass from your property, and reporting waste to your water utility company all help, and are much-needed water-saving measures, they are not the cure-all panacea to our rapidly escalating water woes.
The pumping station at Lake Mead, completed in April of 2020 at a cost of $522 million, does better help to ensure that water flows to the Las Vegas valley, even if the reservoir shrinks another approximately 160 feet to its “dead pool,” the point at which Hoover Dam would be unable to release water downstream and create necessary electric power. However, this does not negate the fact that the demand for our water far exceeds supply and extra pumping station capability does not solve the ever-growing water deficit situation.
Fundamentally, we as communities, nations, and individuals, need to change our collective paradigms on what we feel and believe- and act on.
The multi-agency and states that form the consortium that manages water conservation actions in the Western U.S., need to be more transparent in their planning and decision-making phases, permitting public comment and responses.
For example, the Southern Nevada Water Authority, recently reported that there was a recently seven-billion-gallon water cut to the Southern Nevada allocation. Why? How many people were aware of and support this action?
And are having all the best, luxurious, and most ostentatious water accouterments in life acceptable goals for our planet, considering the rapid deterioration of our environment and planet?
Is having that impeccable, verdant lawn really all that necessary?
On that note, at least to their credit, after trying to enact change for many years, the Southern Nevada Water Authority last year banned lawns in all new construction, and patches of “non-functional” grass that only serve aesthetic purposes must be removed and replaced with desert-friendly landscaping.
But why must a government entity regularly step in to enact changes before any major changes are accomplished?
Yes, cities and governmental entities do depend on government funds to progress. But how many commercial and residential developments and people can a geographical area environmentally support to maintain reasonable water and associated utility lifestyle?
Consider this: CBRE tracked a total of 4,317 multifamily units constructed in the Las Vegas area in 2021. This year, they are projecting more than 8,000 units, with at least 16,000 in 2023. The sky is the limit, or so it appears.
Just recently, Dream Las Vegas Hotel & Casino announced their new 531-room hotel is scheduled for its 2024 opening. Is it really a “dream” for our overtaxed environment?
We have approximately 40 million visitors who come to Las Vegas annually. How about if we have the goal of growing that to 80 million? What is the sustainable environmental limit?
When will the ultimate gavel of extreme water rationing doom by the U.S. Department of Interior and legislators occur? Many experts say they will in 2023.
But whatever the time, it is now wise to do whatever you can, and with collective supporting groups, to temper your paradigms of acceptable living, and those of your fellow man.
It is tough to survive in a desert on a glass of water per day.
Due to the great depression, the mines were forced to shut down the operation and most people moved away. The remaining population of about 75 people promoted the town as a historic ghost town. In 1967 Jerome was officially designated as a National Historic District by the federal government. Now to be known as the largest ghost town in America.