HAHAHAHAAAAA!!!! Oh, you're something! Yeah, the politicians are long distance lovers, all right -- they can "eff" us up from DC to CA, AK and beyond :-6
"what Eisenhower has been doing to the country for the last eight years”
Lake Mead, backed up by iconic Hoover Dam just outside Las Vegas, receives about 9 million acre-feet of water annually from Lake Powell, a small percentage of which also comes from downstream tributaries. But after sending water to Arizona, Nevada, California and Mexico, after evaporation and other subtractions, Lake Mead loses 10.2 million acre-feet each year. During the ongoing 15-year period of drought in the river basin, the annual shortfall of 1.2 million acre-feet of water in Lake Mead has come to be known as the “structural deficit.” Everyone who has seen the ring- around-the-tub photos of Lake Mead in recent years knows what that means. Each year the deficit drops the surface level of Mead by 12 feet, according to the research group. If the surface falls to 1,075 feet above sea level as measured on Jan. 1 of any year, the interim guidelines state that the secretary of the interior can declare a shortage on the river. And the lake briefly dropped below that level this past June, before record-breaking spring precipitation in the Rockies boosted it back. Should a shortage be declared, water deliveries could be curtailed — with the size of the delivery reduction depending on just how far the lake level falls. Should Mead’s surface reach 1,025 feet, for example, deliveries of consumptive water to Arizona, Nevada and California would be curtailed by 500,000 acre-feet. “It’s worth noting that 500,000 acre-feet is not even half of the structural deficit,” said Doug Kenney, director of the Western Water Policy Program at the University of Colorado, and a member of the research group. “It’s not enough to stop the problem.” Lake Mead’s water level has dropped 135 feet since 2000. In other words, even with the prescribed curtailment in deliveries, if the structural deficit remains the same, the lake level would continue to plummet. “At 1,000 feet, the interim agreement calls for a ‘re-consult,’” Kenney said. To view the full article visit the Rocky Mountain PBS.
