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Shrinking Lake Mead Nevada

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RedRedWhine
Navigator

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USA
167 Posts

Initially Posted - 06/28/2006 : 21:40:10

I just wanted to show you where I sail. We sail at Lake Mead near Las Vegas. As I am sure you are all aware we are in a drought in the west. Here is a link to Lake Mead. You can see in the two pictures, three years apart, how much the lake has gone down. Right now the cement batch plant is exposed. It was last seen when the dam was completed and the lake filled. There is also a B-29 bomber that crashed into the lake years ago during a secret mission. They now patrole the area and do not allow divers to get close. If you fly over it you can see the ouling of the plane. There is also a few old towns that are now becoming exposed. We have to be carefull when we sail because there are a lot of new reefs that are becoming exposed. I have seen boaters drive fast across the lake at night and hit them. I hope the drought ends soon of we will have a pond and not a lake. My boat is at the Lake Mead Marina. THey are talking about moving the docks out again in about 6 months. A year or so ago the Las Vegas Wash Maring was moved acoss the lake to Hemingway. You can see this in the picture. Enjoy....

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/LakeMead/lake_mead.html

Don and Kim Young
Las Vegas Nv
http://web.me.com/bolter303/Our_World/Welcome.html

Edited by - on

Waterboy
Navigator

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USA
204 Posts

Response Posted - 06/28/2006 : 22:34:15

The NASA webpage shows water level graphs through about 2003. I thought last winter was better for the west, and here in Oregon it offered a significant reprieve from the drought. Have water levels in Lake Mead improved this spring, or do they continue to drop?

Edited by - on

RedRedWhine
Navigator

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USA
167 Posts

Response Posted - 06/28/2006 : 23:22:57

They are still droping. The rain you got helped your area but we need the snow melt from the rockies. Last winter they were 103% above normal snow melt. This helps but we had years of 94-95% below causing the drought. We have had less and less rain here. We use to have lots of thunderstorms but they are getting less and less. I hoep it turns around soon. I know the west coast needs to build de-salinations plants soon to help.

Edited by - on

Arlyn Stewart
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
2980 Posts

Response Posted - 06/29/2006 : 06:46:27

Water is getting to be a big issue and of course affect sailing. Our local Corp of Engineers lake was a beautiful undeveloped lake serving the public boating, fishing and camping comunities for seventy-five years but went online as the city water supply a few years ago and has been taken down to a mud hole with ramps high and dry (whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa).

There have been two water districts formed to develope future lakes but the properties are coveted making it nearly impossible to add water reserves.

Heard a program outlining China's water situation which has only one third the water of the US and is heavily poluted... so I guess it could be worse.

Edited by - on

takokichi
Captain

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USA
321 Posts

Response Posted - 06/29/2006 : 07:41:31

Ain't supposed to be people so many people in the desert...

Hayduke Lives!

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Frank Hopper
Past Commodore

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Pitcairn Island
6776 Posts

Response Posted - 06/29/2006 : 11:02:00

You pick your region, you get what comes with it. Personally I think we should blow up Las Vegas, move the Imperial Valley agriculture to Mexico (How's that for genius!), and basically quit trying to fight mother nature. I live in the Kansas where we are mocked by the coasts and every other "desirable" area as a flyover waste of space. Hmmm, 39" of rainfall per year makes us the wheat state, huge corn state, huge beef state; reliable 4 seasons make us rational utility users, and we can afford 2000 sq ft houses with large yards. We have industry that does not overwhelm the environment... but most of America would not consider living here. If there was not a large Native American population displaced from your town's land then you probably should not live there!

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JimB517
Past Commodore

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USA
3285 Posts

Response Posted - 06/29/2006 : 13:01:14

The Pacific Ocean is not going anywhere but UP. You are always welcome to join the rest of the "zonies" who migrate here every weekend.

By the way, I spent many years working in Kansas and found it to be very nice. Kansas City/Overland Park. Did a lot of bike riding and playing golf. Clean, family-oriented place.

Being from Nevada, you would be an honorary "zonie", of course.

Edited by - JimB517 on 06/29/2006 17:29:09

Gloss
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1916 Posts

Response Posted - 06/29/2006 : 18:46:20

Hayduke Lives!

Wow, I haven't heard a reference to the Monkey Wrench gang in a long time. One of my all time favorites.

So what the heck is a "zonie"

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sailorman
1st Mate

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USA
69 Posts

Response Posted - 06/29/2006 : 21:35:25

Wow, kansas. I lived in Okla. for 12 long years. Grew up there, went to college there. I have a brother that still lives there. Some memories of the mid-west: ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

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jaclasch
Navigator

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USA
104 Posts

Response Posted - 06/29/2006 : 22:08:51

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by fhopper@mac.com
 You pick your region, you get what comes with it. Personally I think we should blow up Las Vegas, move the Imperial Valley agriculture to Mexico (How's that for genius!), and basically quit trying to fight mother nature...
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Frank, you really trigger some thoughts. Regarding Las Vegas, Bugsy Siegel really put quite a mark on our poor little planet the way things turned out, didn't he! Let's face it, we need water for everything and it just isn't there anymore because of overuse/misuse. Interesting statistic: If you scaled all the water on the planet to equal one gallon, the amount usable for agricultural and drinking, baths, etc. would equal one tablespoon.

The Northwest also produces a lot of agricultural products, most of which require much water. The rich folk must have their starter mansions and many golf courses which also require much water. For as far back as I can remember, driving from Eastern Washington to the Seattle area, as you approached the numerous grain elevators you would see mini-mountains of wheat on the ground covered by tarps held down by tires. This was the surplus. You do not see them anymore. China formerly had huge stores of wheat until about three years ago. They are gone and guess who is now providing increasing amounts for this growing country's needs.

So forget the fuel crisis. It is nothing compared to the coming water/food crisis. Another statistic: Water use in the US for all purposes, watering, drinking, street cleaning, sewer, etc. equals 650 gallons per day, per person.

Your comment about not fighting mother nature anymore is particularly apt since mother nature tends to fight back with the equivalent of what the stock brokers euphemistically refer to as a "major market correction."

Sorry for being wordy but your points are well taken.

Edited by - on

RedRedWhine
Navigator

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USA
167 Posts

Response Posted - 06/29/2006 : 22:24:16

Hey,

I agree that you have to deal with what mother nature sends you. You guys on the coast deal with tides and we deal with water droping due to drought. The one thing I do know is that you learn to deal with what you don't have. What I mean is that we are one of the only cities that have converted a lot of our grass to synthetic grass. We have also converted our glof courses and parks from drinking water to reclaim water. We take the water from the sewer mains and treat it to a high quality and pump it to the parks and golf courses for irrigation. The lake will come back up everything cycles. I just wanted to show everyone how much the lake has gone down.

Edited by - on

Frank Hopper
Past Commodore

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Pitcairn Island
6776 Posts

Response Posted - 06/29/2006 : 22:33:12

And we all hope Don and Kim get their water back soon.

Edited by - on

frogger
Navigator

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USA
184 Posts

Response Posted - 06/30/2006 : 06:26:33

Our lake is down about 8.5 feet which has cut down considerably on available sailing water, especially for WKs. We've had a semi-drought and most of the rain lately has occurred below the dam. Still, we use what we have and hope that next summer we will be back to full pond. In the meantime, thank goodness for depth sounders.

Edited by - on

glivs
Admiral

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USA
836 Posts

Response Posted - 06/30/2006 : 21:42:08

Kansas... don't boast too loud Frank, between depletion of and nutrient contamination of the Ogallala aquifer things are not looking all that great. A bit further west there is even considerable activity ongoing to replace constructed reservoirs with ground water storage to reduce water loss due to evaporation. Just might require a redesign of the C25. Great website Don & Kim. For a comparable story from what was the Earth's 4th largest inland lake, do a web search on the Aral Sea.

Edited by - on

Frank Hopper
Past Commodore

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Pitcairn Island
6776 Posts

Response Posted - 06/30/2006 : 22:19:36

Gerry, you are kinda new so I will say up front that we always remain friendly on this forum so don't go all Ben and Jerry on me for what I am about to say. I love our farm nutrient runoff, Cheney is our drinking water reservoir and Wichita has no problem filtering the contamination out and the contamination has proven to be the only thing that has stopped the Zebra Muscle, adults can live in our little lake but they cannot reproduce. He He And I do love the aquifer, my well costs pennies to run and I have all the yard water I could want at 12 ft. (I live in the arKansas river valley) My point is that Kansas is a naturally inhabitable region and many people have moved to terra-formed hostile environments where man will win for a while but in the end Mother Nature will reclaim the land. I like it when Mother Nature wins, it shows that all the worry about the environment is silly, when she wants something back she will take it. Right now she wants desert back in the southwest; just like she wants the Mississippi delta back.

Edited by - on

Lightnup
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1016 Posts

Response Posted - 07/01/2006 : 08:35:26

Edited by - on

glivs
Admiral

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USA
836 Posts

Response Posted - 07/01/2006 : 18:20:16

Frank,
No disagrements...I probably should have used one of those little smiley faces to let you know my comments were meant as a friendly poke...besides I love a good argument regardless of which side I take. As for nutrient contaminants from farm runoff we here in VT have much to learn. Both the northern and southern ends of Lake Champlain have annual blue-green algal blooms that are now monitored via satellites. No easy answers, but it is unfortunate.

Edited by - on

Frank Hopper
Past Commodore

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Pitcairn Island
6776 Posts

Response Posted - 07/01/2006 : 22:33:20

I used to come to Burlington to buy Power PCs, I was the product manager for a Macintosh processor upgrade among other things. I loved taking a Lear on a ballistic route from Wichita to Burlington. Occasionally we would use a King Air which was more comfortable but no where near as cool, (literally!!). You live in a magic place. I went to the docks once to look at boats and decided I was not at THE place to find sailboats. God I miss dark amber maple syrup, you guys have a dirty little secret, you grade the tasteless stuff as fine and ship it to us dummies and grade the good stuff as poor and keep it for the locals.

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glivs
Admiral

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USA
836 Posts

Response Posted - 07/04/2006 : 06:03:03

Most of my career I had a Mac and a Unix box on my desk, but unfortunately the software I use dropped Unix support and moved to Windows so I had to switch. I would go back to a Mac in a heartbeat if possible. If you get a chance to get to Burlington again drop us a note, the door is open...yes Burlington harbor is mostly stinkpots. The sailboats are largely congregated just minutes south (Shelburn Bay) or north (Malletts Bay).

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