Lake Powell & Lake Mead

[3rd_gear_Ted]

The ramps are so low in lake Powell that houseboat operators can't get their big houseboats out of the water. Now they are @ risk of sinking in the seasonal squalls.
200 house boat trips were cancelled this weekend due to low water and there is one remote launch ramp with a lot of mud between you and the water.

Hydro power is being curtailed @ Lake Mead, not enough head pressure to drive the turbines.

[KNS]

Official water shortage will be declared this year with AZ and NV taking the first hit with restrictions next year.

[vash]

i know a bunch of tunnelers that put a big tunnel that runs beneath Mead and comes up at the bottom of the lake like a bathtub drain. they can take that lake down to zero if need be.

this sucks. i wish those affected the best luck, and a ****load of rain.

[Joe Bob]

Lack of planning on the HB operators.....shoulda pulled them out long time ago......

[Arizona_928]

The one lake i go fishing at in NE Arizona is at least 30 feet low. No boat ramps are open bc it's just dirt down.

My well is running great though.

[Joe Bob]

When i lived in Santa Barbara,,,,,huge drought. They a a desal plant. The day they opened or there abouts...8 inches of rain....

CA can bite my ass....

[look 171]

Few years ago, I thought the big rains filled all the lakes and res. back to normal? I know they have been low for the past couple years, but not this low.

[stevej37]

Where are these two lakes that you mention?

[GG Allin]

stupid question: Why not just stop the flow of water through the dam and let the levels rise again?

Is that just not possible? Too much interruption to power production?

[Sooner or later]

Originally Posted by GG Allin

stupid question: Why not just stop the flow of water through the dam and let the levels rise again?

Is that just not possible? Too much interruption to power production?

Along with irrigation down river.

[tdw28210]

Originally Posted by stevej37

Where are these two lakes that you mention?

Mead in Nevada - Hoover Dam. Powell is in Utah/Arizona. Both fed by the Colorado river.

[pwd72s]

Will we be shipping Tabs bottled water? Can't have our sage dying of thirst on us...

[tabs]

CA is next.

[tabs]

Already paying 85 cents a gallon.
Just wait till it costs more than gasoline.

[pwd72s]

Originally Posted by tabs

Already paying 85 cents a gallon.
Just wait till it costs more than gasoline.

Hmmm...how much to hire a sanitary tanker truck from Vegas to here? I'd sell you water from a well hidden deep in Oregon's Willamette Valley for much less than that..

[IROC]

I read a good discussion on this not long ago. It is a real and very big problem. Thru climate change, the western part of the country is getting drier and the eastern part of the country is getting wetter (in the last couple of months they revised our yearly rainfall average here in East Tennessee and raised it by 4").

Lake Mead was last considered "full" in 2000. It is now 143 FEET below that level. This impacts municipal water supplies, irrigation, the ability to produce power, etc. - not just recreation/tourism. It is "low" by about 5.5 trillion gallons.

One idea that I have read about is a national water grid. Basically a system of piping and pumps to distribute water around the country as needed. Essentially moving water from areas of high rainfall (the east) to areas of low rainfall (the west) or more specifically in this case moving water from the Mississippi River to the Colorado River. When I first read about it I thought 'there's no way'... But, that solution is not a technical or economical problem - it's political/environmental. One study found that the cost to build the system would be less than the recovery efforts from one large Mississippi River basin flood. And... we can certainly build large pipelines over long distances - like the Alaska pipeline (80 million gallons/day at it peak). Unfortunately I just did the math and at 80 million gallons/day it would take 188 years to bring Lake Mead back to full pool. (maybe my Alaska pipeline example isn't representative of pipeline volumes...). Just to ramble, when I worked at Browns Ferry NP, each unit took in 660,000 gpm of cooling water from Wheeler Reservoir during operation. Using this number instead, it would take 16 years to bring it back to full pool.

But...I think it would be mired in arguments over water rights, environmental impacts of pipeline building and movement of invasive species, etc.

I think, though, that it is not inconceivable that as this plays out, the infrastructure in the west is going to increasingly fail to support the needs of the population out there and then the whole country is going to have to deal with this one way or another.

[flatbutt]

Originally Posted by IROC

One idea that I have read about is a national water grid. Basically a system of piping and pumps to distribute water around the country as needed. Essentially moving water from areas of high rainfall (the east) to areas of low rainfall (the west) or more specifically in this case moving water from the Mississippi River to the Colorado River.

That would create a most epic sheet storm.

[Joe Bob]

Probably the only option if saving the west coast is your goal.

[gordner]

I guy I used to work for, who had a bit of the Midas touch, fell backwards into a fortune when he bought an old WWII minesweeper, with the intent of using it for sea tours of the Queen Charlotte islands where he owned a fishing lodge. The refit cost was astronomical, so he parked it at the dock at the lodge and forgot about it.
Two years later, an American fisherman up for a trip saw it and asked endless questions about it of the fishing guides, who eventually pointed him at the owner to talk about it. Long story short, the guy bought it for 2x what Sylvann had paid for it. His reason for buying was that the ship had a massive fresh water hold built into it. His intention was to load up Canadian water and sail to LA to sell it. No idea how it worked out, but he didn't seem like a stupid guy, so I imagine it was a workable idea.

[stevej37]

We have loads of fresh water.
How much would you be willing to pay?