The western United States is suffering from a prolonged drought, the consequences of which are becoming increasingly dramatic – and increasingly obvious: Lake Mead – the country’s largest man-made reservoir of water, which serves millions of people – is now at an all-time low dropped. While the surface of the reservoir on the border of the states of Nevada and Arizona was still 373.4 meters above sea level at its record high in July 1983, it was only 321.6 meters last Friday.
Falling water level exposes water inlet in Lake Mead
Created by the construction of the world-famous Hoover Dam in the mid-1930s, Lake Mead has now shrunk so much that one of its original inlet valves has been exposed for the first time in its history. The lake’s water, which comes from the Colorado River, flows into valves at the bottom, through which it is channeled to drinking water treatment plants.
The now exposed valve of the reservoir has been in operation since 1971, but can no longer be used for water extraction, as announced by the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA).. The agency is responsible for managing the water resources for millions of people in southern Nevada and has now commissioned a pumping station deeper on the lake bed for the first time. Completed in 2020, this station is capable of pumping water out of the lake at a much lower water level.
Lake Powell, which is also fed by the Colorado, experienced a similar fate to Lake Mead in the border area of Utah and Arizona. The reservoir was created in the 1960s by the construction of the Glen Canyon Dam and not only serves as a water reservoir, but also, with the help of turbines, to supply electricity to around five million people in the western United States. In March, however, Lake Powell’s water level dropped to its lowest level since its formation, leading experts to fear it may soon be unable to generate enough electricity.
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Lake Mead and Lake Powell are part of a system that collectively supplies water to more than 40 million people in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming and the southern border of Mexico. Agriculture and industry are also dependent on supplies from the reservoirs. Both lakes were “full” in 2000, but are now only about 30 percent full after a 22-year dry spell, said Brad Udall, senior scientist for water and climate research at Colorado State University the newspaper “USA Today”.
Worst “mega drought” in at least 1,200 years
“The Colorado River basin is being hit by its worst drought on record,” the SNWA said. “Since 2000, snowfall and discharge into the basin have been well below normal. These conditions have caused a significant drop in water levels in the system’s major reservoirs, including Lake Mead and Lake Powell.”
According to a study published in February published in the UK journal Nature Climate Change, the prolonged dry season is actually the worst “mega drought” in the region for at least 1,200 years. Decades of periods with too little rainfall have plagued western North America before, the study says. However, the current one is particularly severe and more than 40 percent is due to human-caused climate change.
“Climate change is changing the underlying conditions towards a drier, gradually drier state in the West, and that means the worst-case scenario is getting worse,” USA Today quoted Park Williams, lead author of the study and climate hydrologist from the University of California at Los Angeles. “This is exactly what people in the 1900s saw as the worst-case scenario. But today I think we need to prepare for even far worse conditions in the future than these.”
But at least the police can also look forward to a positive side effect of the drought: the drop in the water level in Lake Mead last Sunday brought to light a decades-old murder. Tourists discovered a barrel on the dry bank containing the remains of a man who was believed to have been shot in the mid-1970s or early 1980s. According to investigators, the dead man could be a victim of Las Vegas mafia hitmen who used the nearby lake to make their victims disappear. And given the ongoing drought, police believe it’s highly likely that more human remains will be discovered in the future.
Sources: Southern Nevada Water Authority, “U.S. Today”, Associated Press, CNN, “Nature Climate Change”