Posted on 07/02/2022 4:22:07 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A previously sunken World War II-era landing craft that once was 185 feet below the surface of Lake Mead, is being exposed as waters keep shrinking.
The Higgins landing craft is nearly two-thirds exposed. It is beached less than a mile from Lake Mead Marina and Hemenway Harbor.
The boat was used to survey the Colorado River decades ago, then was sold to a marina and eventually used as an anchor for a breakwater in the sediment, according to D.J. Jenner of Las Vegas Scuba, which conducts various tour dives on the lake, previously including the sunken boat.
National Park Service staffers began diving on the site in 2006, according to the Lake Mead National Recreation Area public affairs office. The plywood craft had its engine removed and also had modifications to open up the space between the two machine gun positions toward the stern.
“The surplus nature of the craft highlights an earlier era of the Lake when Las Vegas and Lake Mead were much more remote and removed from much of the United States, where relatively inexpensive WWII surplus could be pressed into duty for new peaceful purposes in the park,” NPS officials said in an email Friday. “The craft is still wrapped in a thin armor plate about 1/2 inch thick.”
Lake Mead’s water levels have declined over the past two decades as a persistent drought has strained the Colorado River, a vital water supply for roughly 40 million people. As of Friday afternoon, the water level at Lake Mead was at 1,043.05 feet above sea level. That is down 4.5 feet from a month ago, more than 25 feet from a year ago and 54 feet from two years ago.
And that is bringing long-sunken objects to the surface, including the Higgins landing craft and, earlier,
(Excerpt) Read more at reviewjournal.com ...
Built in New Orleans no doubt. IIRC wasn’t there a post about them not too long ago? Higgins boats that is.
so the lake was this level in 1955 and 1965 ?
I was there last month.
It took me almost 30 minutes to walk from where the normal marina/dock was to the actual current lake level now.
It’s unbelievable how much of that water is gone.
The Hoover Dam folks will not answer questions about lake levels and “what if” scenarios considering the current circumstances.
30 minutes?
There’s dirty work afoot
Yep.
Lots of dips, turns, crevices to avoid. If I were to measure the distance it was about 1/2 mile. I was near Valley of Fire State Park.
Lake Mud
No - this is the level the boat sunk to ... the surface level was higher. Probably about 175’ higher.
A friend and I drove from Wichita to California in a Jeep back in the 70’s, with the top down. After driving through the Valley of Fire, the top went up.
No I looked up the levels of the lake over the years , this time they’re probably doing it for their Global Warming scam
At the current rate, within two years the outflow from Lake Mead will equal the inflow to Lake Mead, minus evaporation and whatever Las Vegas takes.
And some of the water that exits Lake Mead is promised by treaty to Mexico.
Won’t be leaving much for AZ and CA.
Global Warming scam or no Global Warming scam, the lake, for much of its history, was much higher than it is now.
Vegas takes 440,000 acre feet on a typical year and returns just over half that via the Las Vegas wash the total net consumption is 243,000 acre feet per year well under the allowed 300,000 and a drop in the bucket to California’s 4,400,000 per year.
Vegas recycles every drop that just a drain in the basin back to Lake Mead or uses it as reclaimed water for fountains, AC cooling towers, golf courses or athletic fields. Since those uses are consumptive they are in the above total use. Vegas gets credit for every gallon put back into Lake Mead and has banked water for ten years plus now.
With the third intake online at 860’ MSL they have access to 35 feet of water inside the dead pool of Lake Mead where no water would flow down stream once 895’ MSL is reached those 35 feet hold over two million acre feet of water about 12 years worth for Vegas this doesn’t include the inflows from rivers down stream from Lake Powell that cannot be held by the upper basin should Lake Powell also go dead pool. Those flows are in the 300,000 to 500,000 acre feet per year alone even in severe drought so Vegas has by drilling and tunneling to the deep water ensured a water supply effectively for a millennium or more which is the lifespan of Hoover dam at its current sedimentation rate.
https://m.lasvegassun.com/news/2019/sep/22/las-vegas-water-use-dropped-prominent-residents/
As a point of comparison my last water use was 12,000 gallons last month for two people half that was well water but it is tracked due to our ground water District. We got North Texas Council of governments water at the same time atmos piped in natural gas down our gravel road. NTCG water is so much better tasting than the crap well water we get from the aquifer here.
That may all be true, but sometime in the next year or two all the usable stored water in Lake Mead will be gone and nothing will flow out (with the exception of the LV usage) that didn’t flow in that year.
And that’s going to be a lot less than what’s flowing out now.
Inflows are currently 60% of average flows. You are right when not if Lake Mead goes dead pool only Vegas will have water from that River behind Hoover dam but they will be fine since the inflows at no point in history have been below 1 million acre feet at the entrance to the Canyon country North of Lake Mead even without any flow from the upper basin Lake Mead still has tributaries below Lake Powell and those have never flowed below 250,000 acre feet even at 50% of normal flows those tributaries supply more than Vegas needs if no water can be taken from Lake Mead when it’s below the outlets at Hoover dam.
All the data you seek.
https://lakemead.water-data.com/
http://lakemead.water-data.com/rivers.php
I’ve been watching water-data.com for years. ;-)
Las Vegas will probably be fine, but everyone downstream who has plans for water to be released from Hoover Dam might ought to be contemplating alternatives.
I was there about 40 years ago, very impressed with the beauty of the lake. Not sure whether it was full or just close to it. Very sad to see these pictures today.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.