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Lake Mead is shrinking -- and with it Las Vegas' water supply

sawyerloggingon said:
There has been a 14 year drought in this part of the US and if it goes on much longer Las Vegas will be a ghost town. If you own real estate there you should get while the gettin is good. Vegas may be the next Salton Sea resort area.


LAKE MEAD, Nev. - When you head out on Nevada's Lake Mead, the first thing you notice is a white line. That's where the water used to be.
What did this look like a decade ago?
"This was all underwater," said Pat Mulroy, the general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority. "I mean boats were everywhere. There was a whole marina here."
Mulroy said that the drought began 14 years ago. Satellite photos show the Colorado River, which feeds Lake Mead, is drying up -- so the lake is rapidly shrinking. Islands are growing, and boats are floating far from where they once were.



Lake Mead is shrinking -- and with it Las Vegas' water supply -
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 CBS News
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For sure this is a serious problem and something needs to be done about it.
 
All is well.. the Pineapple express opened up. Couple of feet of snow will fall in the mountains and rain will fall in the valleys.
 
austrianecon said:
All is well.. the Pineapple express opened up. Couple of feet of snow will fall in the mountains and rain will fall in the valleys.
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Another bullet dodged. A February and March as dry as they were last year, and we might have ended the snow year with no snowpack at all. That would have been a catastrophe.
 
Dittohead not! said:
Another bullet dodged. A February and March as dry as they were last year, and we might have ended the snow year with no snowpack at all. That would have been a catastrophe.
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Yes, we should make laws on "might haves" right?
 
j-mac said:
Yes, we should make laws on "might haves" right?
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I'm not sure just what laws you're talking about, but we need to be prepared for might haves, or more precisely, might yet happens.
 
Welcome to our world. Lake Travis [south central Texas]

laketravis_09231114.jpg
Lake-Travis-drought.jpg


These levels have been worsening for the last several years and this is one of the two major reservoirs that provide water for the Austin metro area.
 
Dittohead not! said:
Another bullet dodged. A February and March as dry as they were last year, and we might have ended the snow year with no snowpack at all. That would have been a catastrophe.
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I heard the Calif snow pack is 18% of normal, that will take a lot of snow fast to make up.
 
Dittohead not! said:
They could. Reservoirs are, as the charts indicate, a lot emptier than we would like.

Or not. The storm track seems to be heading this way once again. Let's hope so, not only those of us who live in agricultural regions, but anyone who likes to eat.
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Ain't it great living in a deep blue state where cutting off irrigation water to farms in a drought, to save a delta smelt makes sense to the dunderheads?
 
j-mac said:
Ain't it great living in a deep blue state where cutting off irrigation water to farms in a drought, to save a delta smelt makes sense to the dunderheads?
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It's even better living in a red part of a blue state where the politics are controlled by the blue part.

As for the delta smelt, there is a whole lot more to that story than people from out of state realize.
 
Dittohead not! said:
As for the delta smelt, there is a whole lot more to that story than people from out of state realize.
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Yes, there is.
Such as the water quality of the communities and farms in the Sacramento/San Joaquin delta.
Faraway Fresno agribusiness doesn't care about those people .....you know, the actual residents of that delta area.
These guys have drained a lake (Tulare) and sucked every local river dry....and it's still not enough.
Agribusiness concerns won't be happy until every drop of this state's water is theirs.
After they finish sucking area aquifers dry, the money guys will take their loot and run.
Greedy bastards.
 
radioman said:
Yes, there is.
Such as the water quality of the communities and farms in the Sacramento/San Joaquin delta.
Faraway Fresno agribusiness doesn't care about those people .....you know, the actual residents of that delta area.
These guys have drained a lake (Tulare) and sucked every local river dry....and it's still not enough.
Agribusiness concerns won't be happy until every drop of this state's water is theirs.
After they finish sucking area aquifers dry, the money guys will take their loot and run.
Greedy bastards.
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Actually, there is more to it than that, too.

There is some truth to what you said. The largest freshwater lake in the US outside of the great lakes is now farmland. It has been dry for years. The second largest river in California has been sucked dry. It is still dry, BTW, even after the court decision protecting the delta smelt.

But, there is some truth to the farmers' signs saying that the San Joaquin valley is a "man made desert."

But, the whole truth is a lot more complex than either of the two extreme sides.
 
Dittohead not! said:
It's even better living in a red part of a blue state where the politics are controlled by the blue part.

As for the delta smelt, there is a whole lot more to that story than people from out of state realize.
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Oh please do tell...Because I would LOVE to know why it is that they are telling farmers in the nations most productive land to F off in favor of sardines....
 
j-mac said:
Oh please do tell...Because I would LOVE to know why it is that they are telling farmers in the nations most productive land to F off in favor of sardines....
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You'd love to know that because you're listening to the RW talking points.
There is some truth to it, like most talking points, but it leaves a lot out too.

For example: It isn't really about the delta smelt. That is just the excuse. The real issue is salmon and degradation of the water in the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta.

For example: Some of the growers who get subsidized water from the Delta find it more profitable to sell it to Los Angeles than to grow crops with it.

But, yes, a federal judge (not Congress) has limited the amount of water that can be pumped from the Sacramento San Joaquin Delta because of an endangered species of small fish. That issue came before the judge to begin with because of the decline of salmon and commercial fishermen being out of work as a result.

So, if you want to make a talking point on the other side, it's not about people vs fish. It's about fishermen vs plants.

The whole issue is far more complex than anything that can be put on a bumper sticker, made into an oft repeated talking point, or even discussed in depth on an internet forum.
 
sawyerloggingon said:
There has been a 14 year drought in this part of the US and if it goes on much longer Las Vegas will be a ghost town. If you own real estate there you should get while the gettin is good. Vegas may be the next Salton Sea resort area.


LAKE MEAD, Nev. - When you head out on Nevada's Lake Mead, the first thing you notice is a white line. That's where the water used to be.
What did this look like a decade ago?
"This was all underwater," said Pat Mulroy, the general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority. "I mean boats were everywhere. There was a whole marina here."
Mulroy said that the drought began 14 years ago. Satellite photos show the Colorado River, which feeds Lake Mead, is drying up -- so the lake is rapidly shrinking. Islands are growing, and boats are floating far from where they once were.



Lake Mead is shrinking -- and with it Las Vegas' water supply - CBS News
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Maybe they can salvage the WWII era planes.
 
j-mac said:
Ain't it great living in a deep blue state where cutting off irrigation water to farms in a drought, to save a delta smelt makes sense to the dunderheads?
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Don't you love California - the second they run out of resources they just steal other states resources.

California believes it's entitled to whatever the want when the want.
 
Mr.Nick said:
Don't you love California - the second they run out of resources they just steal other states resources.

California believes it's entitled to whatever the want when the want.
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Damn right.
and if you like produce, dairy, wine, nuts, then California will get the water it needs.
 
Dittohead not! said:
Damn right.
and if you like produce, dairy, wine, nuts, then California will get the water it needs.
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**** Killafornia....

They too stupid to build gigantic distillery plants? oh right they build 750million dollar schools in the middle of the ghetto.

These retarded politicians from California cant even figure out how to extract salt out of water....

I suppose that's what you get when you elect politicians who run on "Obamabucks"

These elected officials might have some authoritarian ideas but at least I can turn salt water into fresh water by my damn self.

I suppose that skill may make me an enemy of the Unites States...
 
Dittohead not! said:
Damn right.
and if you like produce, dairy, wine, nuts, then California will get the water it needs.
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BTW, cows are everywhere across the midwest, hell I live on the Illinois/Wisconsin border - there are cows everywhere you look.
 
Dittohead not! said:
Damn right.
and if you like produce, dairy, wine, nuts, then California will get the water it needs.
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Or, we could not give in to blackmail like that and develop other parts of the nation to grow these things, and tell CA that they should wise up.
 
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