Lake Mead declines to lowest level in history

The Desert Sun | May 20, 2016 | Ian James

[EveningStar]

Link only per agreement with Gannett

[ScottfromNJ]

“The Upper Colorado River basin Snow pack is 102% of Normal as of Today. If the Snows not melting, its hard to fill reservoirs downstream.”

Looks like it’s melting. Help is on the way:

http://lakepowell.water-data.com/

[Peter ODonnell]

Massive desalination of Pacific water should be the priority for the southwest. They could raise the money to pay for it with a tax on all Starbucks drinks above basic coffee. Might take a week or two, but the money would be raised.

[Hildy]

It’s Vegas

[rdcbn]

Part of Barry Goldwater's vision of the Central Arizona Project canal system was that, some time early in the 21st Century, a second phase consisting of desalination plants on the California coast feeding a canal that traveled through Southern California and hooked up with the existing CAP canal system to feed both The Cali inland empire and Arizona

The plans for this second phase canal were actually drawn up in the 1980s but the enviros killed it. The Alaska pipeline and the CAP were amazing projects from an era when America had vision and dared to think big

New desalination tech makes this plan economically reasonable to solve both California and Arizona's water needs which would take the pressure off Las Vegas

Such a plan could also allow the US to send more water downstream to Mexico

[Tallguy]

I think that they open the dam to re-create the spring floods that used to inundate the river hoping to benefit the ecosystem downstream.

There is also some water stored in that lake that belongs to Mexico by treaty, or something.

[KevinB]

Sure, blame it on climate change rather than watering golf courses in the desert.

[okie01]

Such a plan could also allow the US to send more water downstream to MexicoSuch a plan could also allow the US to send more water downstream to Mexico

Have you ever viewed satellite images of the Colorado River below Yuma?

Barely a trickle gets beyond the border...and all of that gets used up by Mexican irrigation projects around San Luis and Algodones.

What's left is this enormous, but largely waterless, delta draining into the Gulf of California. There is a sparse spider web of tidal streams, but most of the delta looks overgrown with weeds and brush.

A weird landscape...

[Stand Watch Listen]

I don’t believe any water, but a trickle, reached the Gulf of California. With several States and Mexico drawing their ever increasing water allocations from the Colorado River, the water is just about ‘spoken for’.

[PAR35]

You need to learn to think like a liberal. Use accurate, but irrelevant, arguments.