If the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation estimates in its August report that the lake level will be at or below that altitude in January 2023, the Southwest will move to the second level of unprecedented water cuts, which will further reduce water levels. the Colorado River, which can be used by cities, industry, and tribal water users.
As of Tuesday, Lake Mead was about 1,049 feet above sea level.
As the water level drops, previously sunken boats appear in the mud, and other vehicles have recently sunk.
Travis Pardi, who took several photos of the boats, told CNN that he believed there were dozens in the area, but he only took a few.
And on Monday, the National Park Service shared several photos on Twitter showing trucks stuck in the mud around the lake – a shoreline that looks deceptively stable but acts more like floating sand.
“If you’re struggling to maneuver your car, boat or yourself on the beach, head to a higher spot immediately, if possible,” NPS said on Twitter. “No boat or car is worth a life.”
Future water stops
Lake Mead, which supplies water to about 25 million people in Arizona, Nevada, California and Mexico, is currently operating at a level 1 shortage that began in January. Under Level 1 conditions, the southwestern states saw mandatory cuts to the water they could consume from the Colorado River. These redundancies mainly affected agriculture.
If the lake’s water level is expected to remain below 1,050 feet by January 2023, the more significant level 2 deficit will apply. Arizona will move from the current 18% reduction to 21% and Nevada will move from 7% to 8%. Mexico will also see a 7% reduction in water.
Further cuts are expected – any level with increasing impact on agriculture and municipal water use – if Lake Mead continues to shrink. And if employees expect the level to be below 1,045 feet in January, then California will also see a mandatory 5% discount on what they can get out of the Colorado River.
“This illustrates how bad the situation really is,” John Fleck, director of the Water Program at the University of New Mexico, told CNN. “The risk of climate change we face in the Colorado River Basin right now has never been greater.”
Patty Aaron, a public affairs officer with the Bureau of Reclamation, said the forecasts were nuanced as water officials also had to take into account declining water levels in neighboring Mead upstream, Lake Powell, the country’s second-largest reservoir.
The agency recently announced unprecedented emergency steps to help raise water levels in Lake Powell, which includes releasing more water from smaller reservoirs up the Colorado River in Powell while retaining water in Powell itself instead of sending water down the Powell River. the current to Lake Medovina.
Without these urgent steps, the bureau estimates that there is about a 25% chance that Lake Glen Canyon, which is fed by Lake Powell, will stop producing by the end of this year. The dam generates energy for as many as 5.8 million homes and businesses in seven states.
“According to operational criteria for 2022, the Glen Canyon Dam was supposed to release 7.48 million acres of water to Lake Mead,” Aaron told CNN. “It was decided to reduce this release to 7 million acres to protect Lake Powell from reaching critical levels.
Given these recent unprecedented actions, “it is impossible to say exactly what will happen between now and August,” she said when the Lake Mead report was published.
The water authorities in the affected states, as well as the federal government, are already preparing for what lies ahead.
“In preparation, we continue to work with stakeholders, tribes, partners and water areas to help them understand how much of a drop in their supply there can be,” Aaron said. “We also fund nature conservation actions and activities [Colorado River] Swimming pool. “
As the climate changes rapidly and the drought continues, Fleck said the West must prepare for more shortages and take proactive action.
“Whatever we do with moving water from one tank to another, it’s just tape, what we really need to do is drastically reduce pool water use,” he said. “The heart of the problem is that these reservoirs are empty because we use more water than the river can provide. We need to reverse this.”
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