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Nevada's Lake Mead Is Drying Up

good.is — Water levels are falling in America’s largest reservoir. If it dries up, so could power and water for much of the Southwest.

Who dugg this? Made popular May 13, 2009

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  • inactive, on 05/13/2009, -1/+41Las Vegas using an unreasonable amount of water for a city in the middle of the desert is not caused by global warming.
  • inactive, on 05/13/2009, -5/+43it would be a sign of a natural crisis if it was a natural lake but it's man made and it's a man made problem that is emptying it. did you even read the ***** article? It's Las Vegas that is killing Lake Mead not global warming.

    "our so-called drought is still wetter than the average precipitation for the area averaged over centuries. In other words, for the last 75 years, we’ve been partying like it’s 1929. Farmers grow rice by flooding arid farmland with water from Lake Mead; residents of desert communities maintain front lawns of green grass; golfers demand courses in areas where the temperature exceeds 100 degrees Fahrenheit during the summer."

    "the Western United States has been sucking more water out of Lake Mead than the dwindling Colorado River can provide to replace it. When output is greater than input, the reservoir shrinks."
  • edstate, on 05/13/2009, -5/+35It's obviously Global Drying.
  • oiooioio, on 05/13/2009, -0/+21its called a reservoir for a reason ....
  • n1eb, on 05/13/2009, -1/+19The entire draw from Lake Mead from the Las Vegas area is less than 5% of the average yearly inflow. Yet people constantly point their fingers at our golf courses, resorts, and homes as being a main source of the problem. Criticizing golf courses in the desert and nice houses with lush landscaping always seems to ring well with the masses. You could completely turn off the tap for Vegas and the lake level would drop just as fast. Removing our grass and changing our sprinkler timers has a statistically insignificant effect on the lake level compared to the fact that we are in a multi-year drought.
  • Chompy, on 05/13/2009, -0/+16Las Vegan here.

    The Southwest doesn't have a water crisis that couldn't be solved by ending unsustainable agriculture in California; the SJ Valley takes up something like 50% of the water used by five states to grow strawberries, avocados, and other crops that can be grown much more cheaply in Argentina and Mexico. I'm all for preserving American industry, but the only people who benefit from California agriculture are massive agricorporations like Monsanto, and illegal migrant workers.
    As for Vegas, note that we've reduced our water consumption by 30% over the last 10 years while INCREASING our population by about a million people. Our average household uses something like 1/4 of the water used by the average east coast household. Ditto for most of Arizona. It's time for some other states to chill out on the water consumption.
  • ToRoE, on 05/13/2009, -3/+185% sounds like a great start to me. just saying...
  • amorrise, on 05/13/2009, -1/+13If it was mead like medieval beer it would be a lot more sad.
  • jba68, on 05/13/2009, -0/+11you could prolly get away with doing it one more time at least....
  • Bloodwine, on 05/13/2009, -0/+10They mention farmers in passing only, but I would bet they are a bigger cause of the issue than residential and power usage.
  • pegothejerk, on 05/13/2009, -1/+11If you move to the dessert, you had better be prepared for droughts. I lived in San Diego for 4 years and traveled the west coast quite a bit. It was very obvious to me that if the southwest goes into a decade long or longer drought there will be deaths and possibly riots. I wanted no part of that so I moved somewhere where water and energy weren't completely control by the states favorite profitable energy corps.
  • altgeeky1, on 05/13/2009, -1/+10You're not sticking to the prepared Talking Points...
  • hydroplane, on 05/13/2009, -1/+10Maybe if they used dam space more efficiently instead of as housing for a giant alien robotic overlord they wouldn't have this problem.
  • olsonjj, on 05/13/2009, -0/+8Agreed. I've lived in Arizona and Las Vegas. In Vegas, we already have water restrictions and we should. However, go to Arizona, and there are none. And as Chompy stated, a large majority of the water goes to California for agriculture.
  • VisualRhetoric, on 05/13/2009, -0/+8mmm, dessert.
  • vtbarrera, on 05/13/2009, -27/+35I visit Lake Mead every summer, and it's so sad to see how much water levels have dropped. The rings on the sides of the canyons are a stark reminder that we are going through an environmental crisis.
  • uberchaoslord, on 05/13/2009, -5/+13I wouldn't digg you down for saying "environmental crisis" because water supply is going to be a crisis, and soon. But when you followed up with "such as global warming" I dugg you down, because you didn't RTFA, and you're spouting the green-line talking points.
  • uptwolait, on 05/13/2009, -1/+8How about you just cry me a river?
  • Lederhosed, on 05/13/2009, -0/+7That's one hell of a bathtub ring
  • aurrea, on 05/13/2009, -0/+7Arizona and California account for most of the water used. Check your facts...
  • trolleyfan, on 05/13/2009, -0/+6Ummm, the Government *does* own all the water coming out of Lake Mead - it's their dam.

    Heck, they own most of the water everywhere in the Southwest, with the exception of a handful of small water companies that supply water to, all-together, maybe a half-million people out of the total.

    Take L.A. It's got water coming from Lake Mead - Federally owned - Northern California - State owned - and the Owen's Valley - City owned. Then most of the *local* supplies are owned by various municpalities, counties, etc.
  • Shakermaker, on 05/13/2009, -0/+6Oh, come on...everybody knows that Global Drying is a myth perpetuated by the left and rogue scientists.
  • frequentFlyer, on 05/13/2009, -0/+6Lots of good times on Mead. Sad to see it so freaking low. I guess there will be no more cliff diving.
  • trolleyfan, on 05/13/2009, -0/+6Actually yes. It's from a different source of water, admittedly, but there are single farms in the San Joaquin that use more water than San Diego.
  • AbleX, on 05/13/2009, -1/+7As a citizen of Las Vegas, its my duty to point out that the majority of the water actually goes to SoCal. We only use about 2% of the water coming out of there.
  • KSUdesigner, on 05/13/2009, -3/+9Any amount of conservation will help it last longer, whether it's a huge amount or not is not the point. If you're running out of something then you conserve what you've got. God forbid you don't get to water your lawn for a while. You live in the desert, things aren't supposed to be all lush and green.
  • roberekson, on 05/13/2009, -0/+5"Those chips, beef, and corn-syrup products you use everyday will become more expensive if irrigation or power production is unavailable."

    Good, maybe we'll go back to real sugar then.
  • trolleyfan, on 05/13/2009, -0/+5Nope, it's *your* fault for developing that cheap, reliable desalinization process and then NOT TELLING ANYONE ON THE COAST OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN.

    Oh, wait, you *didn't* develope such?
  • inactive, on 05/13/2009, -1/+6Protip: dont build a massive city in the middle of the desert.
  • billraydrums, on 05/13/2009, -0/+5Wow...a lake...in a desert....drying up......Whodathunkit?
  • uptwolait, on 05/13/2009, -0/+5Dam.
  • Visual77, on 05/13/2009, -0/+5Las Vegas gets about 5% of the water from Lake Mead, because when the Hoover Dam was built and the water rights contracts signed, Las Vegas barely existed.
  • kamakazitp, on 05/13/2009, -0/+5Your vote is also basically worthless, cause its only one among millions, so you may as well not vote.

    But yea, I get what you're saying. A lot of the water is used up by farming in California, where the landscape is also a desert that would never have normally supported it.
  • athinnes, on 10/01/2009, -0/+5Humping Powerpoint in meetings. Interesting image.
  • slinky783, on 05/13/2009, -0/+5Las Vegas is not in the minority with that sort of water usage. In the United States, over 90% of water consumed is for agricultural purposes. If shortening your shower, washing clothes less, or not watering your lawn clears your conscience, go for it. It doesn't make a damn bit of difference in the big picture of water conservation.

    Moreover, come back in ten years and I'd bet it'll be full again. Droughts happen. Droughts end.
  • gtluke, on 05/13/2009, -0/+4i'ts not DRYING, they are keeping the valves open because of a treaty we have with mexico to give them water. we are pulling off the water supply too much upstream as well for the expanding phoenix and vegas areas.
  • RandomGorilla, on 05/13/2009, -3/+7It's not ***** rocket science here; A million fountains and lush suburban lawns cannot be sustained in the middle of a wasteland that gets less than six inches of rainfall annually.
  • drmangrum, on 05/13/2009, -2/+6FUD much?

    So the current water level isn't near it's all time high...um, so what? If the lake was "near it's all time high" in 2000, then logically it was lower than that in previous years. The rains will return and fill it up eventually.

    Of course, it wouldn't hurt if Las Vegas didn't waste so much water in stupid water shows and ***** of swimming pools.
  • jba68, on 05/13/2009, -10/+14@AndrewDB cmon what the hell. A drought is an environmental crisis.. what the hell
  • Astark, on 05/13/2009, -1/+5If it's yellow, let it mellow, Vegas.
  • RandomGorilla, on 05/13/2009, -0/+4When did I mention specific places? A huge chunk of Cali is DEATH VALLEY and Arizona is... well, Arizona.
  • danthepiercer, on 05/13/2009, -0/+4damn, you are one pissed off dude...
    please dont go and shoot up everyone in your office with an ak-47...really.

  • york2600, on 05/13/2009, -0/+4Southern California is effectively a desert as well. The development there just isn't sustainable without robbing Northern California of water (emphasis on robbing).
  • danthepiercer, on 05/13/2009, -0/+4dont you hate it when you make a funny and/or relevant comment criticizing stupid people, only to realize that you misspelled the last word just as the 'edit' timer runs out.


    yeah, me two.
  • dpoon, on 05/13/2009, -0/+3If people are wasting water, then clearly it's underpriced. Why not make the price of water vary inversely according to the reservoir volume?
  • steelese, on 05/13/2009, -0/+3This pisses me off. They have been robbing water from Lake Powell for years and now they are complaining that It's water level is dropping. Lake Powell is several hundred feet lower. I say stop the flow at Lake Powell and let it all dry up.
  • vtbarrera, on 05/13/2009, -21/+24I don't get why I'm being dugg down. The ***** lake is visibly being affecting by environmental trends such as global warming.
  • agent13x, on 05/13/2009, -0/+3The same exact thing happened to Lake McConaughey in Nebraska about 5 years ago, and it has since then recovered due to rainfall returning back to normal levels. Sounds unimportant? The lake provides most of the irrigation for crops in Nebraska and Kansas along with generating power for a huge portion of Nebraska. Still sounds irrelevant to you? Those chips, beef, and corn-syrup products you use everyday will become more expensive if irrigation or power production is unavailable.
  • trolleyfan, on 05/13/2009, -1/+4Read the article more closely.

    Rainfall levels low compared with last few decades - but *high* compared with last few centuries.

    Rainfall levels *probably* going back to those normal for those "last few centuries."

    Rainfall at that level not enough to "fill it up eventually" at current - or even majorly cut-back use levels.
  • TwistyMcFister, on 05/13/2009, -0/+3Interesting info via NASA (a little dated but still shows drought effects)
    http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/LakeMead ...

    the good news is Lake Powell's levels are rising which can help feed Lake Mead's water level.
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