The article provides information about the Lake Mead water level shortage and the reason behind the lower levels.
Are you aware of the recent incident of Lake Mead’s water level going down? Are you willing to know the reason behind the drop? The Lake Mead Water Level Shortage news is trending in the United States.
Lake Mead is a reservoir on the Colorado River in the southwest region of the United States that was created by the Hoover Dam. The largest water storage body in the United States is situated in Nevada and Arizona, near the eastern part of Las Vegas. It supplies water to around 20 million people in California, Nevada, Arizona, and some parts of Mexico. Lake Mead is 180km long and 162 m deep, containing 34,820,000 megalitres of water at its full capacity.
However, since 1983 Lake Mead has not reached its maximum capacity with the increase in the water demand and frequent drought conditions. The lake has drooped to 26.63% of the maximum capacity, lowering even the lowest water level of 11,506,000 megalitres recorded in July 2016. The reclamation bureau of the United States has described the condition of water shortage in 2022, with the lake level getting very low at 327.7metres.
Lake Mead Water Level Shortage
It is noted that the Lake Mead water level has gone down very low since July 2021. The reports suggest that the water level has gone down by 26 feet and the people are willing to know the cause of the disastrous event. The change in rain pattern, variation in climate, high evaporation of water, reduction in surface runoff of the melting snow, and increase in water usage have created an utmost pressure situation on the water management organization as the people rely on Lake Mead for its water need and on Hoover Dam for the electricity production.
If the water level drops at the same rate, the Hoover Dam would be affected to generate electricity if the level reaches around 290m. The lake would stabilize with a further reduction in the water level at 273m. A huge amount of $1.5 billion was spent to build a new water intake tunnel in the center of Lake Mead at 260m that took around 7 years to build the tunnel and was taken into operation in 2015. The project functioned to continue the water supply to Las Vegas.
The west regions are frequently the victim of drought, which creates the water level shortage in Lake Mead in addition to the surface runoff of the snow in the hills. The situation has been disastrous and has come to notice and gone viral on social media. The situation is compared to a similar event that occurred about 50-60 years back of the Lake Mead water level went down the incident.
The water level of Lake Mead in 1951
The recent news of the water level shortage in Lake Mead has created havoc in the people of the United States. As per the reports, the lake’s water level has lowered by around 26 feet. The situation has not been for the 1st time as a similar event occurred in the previous years from 1951-64 as well.
The water level decreased considerably due to the construction of new dams in the north and south parts of the US. The Hoover Dam’s completion got the way for the other two dams, Parker and Imperial dam. The Davis dam is the closest to Lake Mead, and its construction has benefited from the increase in the Lake Mead water level by almost 30 feet in the yesteryears. The water level has gone up and down since then and kept on varying frequently.
What can be done to prevent the water shortage in Lake Mead?
As per the survey in 2016, around 6% of the water in Lake Mead is lost with its evaporation. Even if this 6% of Lake Mead is covered by the floating photovoltaics, it will provide an electricity generation of 3400MW equal to that of the Hoover Dam production capacity. The covering would reduce the water evaporation by around 90%, providing an ultimate solution to the water level going down evaporation.
As per the survey in 2021, if 10% of the lake area is covered by floating photovoltaics, it would provide sufficient supply to Reno and Las Vegas and even meet their electricity needs at ease. In the recent past in December 2021, the US Dept. of the Interior passed an amount of $200 million for 2022-23 to spend for subsidizing the water consumers who would voluntarily reduce their consumption.
The US regulatory bodies are on their toes to implement the 500+ plan that aims to retain 35% of the maximum capacity of Lake Mead. They have been successful in their talks with the Colorado River Indian Tribes and the Gila River Indian Community, which will help them to save about 11 feet of the water level of Lake Mead.
What is the dead pool incident in Hoover Dam?
As per the latest reports, the water level of Lake Mead is down by 26 feet. The lake is located at 1229 feet above sea level, and it is assumed that if the water goes down below 890 feet with the current rate of water level lowering, the Hoover Dam will be unable to contribute to electricity generation. The situation will be termed a dead pool.
Final Words
The content provides detailed information on the Lake Mead Water Level Shortage in the United States, which has put the country’s people in a worrying situation and also creates awareness to reduce water usage in the coming future. The extreme reduction in the water level since July 2021 has created havoc in the people of the United States.
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