Lake Mead expected to be 23.5 feet lower this year than last. 23.5 feet in one year!

[IDBoating]

Lake Mead water levels falling to lowest since 1937

[dingleberry]

Yup, we are down approximately 130 feet below full pool. Volume is currently only at about 39% of capacity. Not good.

[WakerideN]

my wife and I are always debating water and usage in the west. Like my state is just as bad, should have more rock scapes and less grass in yards and business's given the population increases.

[WakerideN]

Yup, we are down approximately 130 feet below full pool. Volume is currently only at about 39% of capacity. Not good.

2 years ago we where in valley of fire and went to that boat ramp close to there... is it still usable that far north?

[dingleberry]

2 years ago we where in valley of fire and went to that boat ramp close to there... is it still usable that far north?

Two years ago the Overton ramp had been long closed, so I think you are talking about Echo Bay. Yes, the low level ramp at Echo is still open (to my knowledge), but the marina there has closed.

[WakerideN]

that would be the one. echo bay. wow. my kids had a pretty good time messing with the monster carp there.

[Dan and Christy]

Slow down, Lake Powell is going up dramatically and is 9' higher than the same time last year. Pretty simple, Powell is holding water for some reason. The local news channels have the same Chicken Little mentality but fail to look at the whole picture. It was a great snow year as well. Overall water usage for the Vegas valley is down 60% from 10 years ago.

[dingleberry]

Slow down, Lake Powell is going up dramatically and is 9' higher than the same time last year. Pretty simple, Powell is holding water for some reason. The local news channels have the same Chicken Little mentality but fail to look at the whole picture. It was a great snow year as well. Overall water usage for the Vegas valley is down 60% from 10 years ago.

I never said that the sky was falling. But the generally low runoff for the past 13 or so years (except for a couple years ago, when Mead rose by about 30 feet in one year) combined with the increasing demand of the Colorado River's water do not result in a likelihood for a quick turnaround. Unless we get numerous years of great runoff. Or somehow convince politicians and administrators to enforce reductions in the primary consumers of the water (agriculture, etc.).

[talltigeguy]

Also, St. George wants to build a pipeline to Lake Powell to take more of the Colorado River runoff, at the cost of 1 Billion dollars or more. And here I sit with at my house with more than 1/3 of an acre of grass. When they finally make me pay for the true cost of bringing the water to my grass, then I will have a tennis court, or sand volleyball court pretty quickly. The politicians here do not want to enforce any sort of emphasis on conservation, they want a 1 Billion dollar pipeline. In St. George, we use several times more water per capita than Tucson, but have pretty similar weather.

I hope that doesn't digress too much, but it highlights the point that we have to use less water, the 2 main reserviors have a lot less water than they did 13 years ago. Whether that reduction in flow continues indefinitely is anybody's guess...the enviros are surely claiming a 13 year trend means humans are destroying the climate, and we will only get dryer. Unless we get wetter

[dingleberry]

OK, now I'll blame Tall and all the other St. Georgeans (?) for the low lake level

[25cents]

Slow down, Lake Powell is going up dramatically and is 9' higher than the same time last year. Pretty simple, Powell is holding water for some reason. The local news channels have the same Chicken Little mentality but fail to look at the whole picture. It was a great snow year as well. Overall water usage for the Vegas valley is down 60% from 10 years ago.

Powell is actually suposed to be up 45 feet over last year. They had 200% snow pack in the rocky mountains between colorado and Utah. There is less flow going to mead this year because they drain more out of powell last year to make the castle rock cut out of wahweep. The water is there if it is needed to release to mead.

[Bad05]

It's always interesting seeing the new islands each weekend....like Andrew's Island from year's ago!

[talltigeguy]

The water is there if it is needed to release to mead.

Not exactly. Powell is currently 9 feet higher than at this point last year, and Mead is 24 feet lower than last year. I am not sure how many feet in Powell need to be drawn down to make Mead rise a foot, but I think it is somewhere in the neighborhood of 1:1. If anyone can find that data, that might be interesting. So despite the great snowpack this year, last summer and winter were so dismal for Powell, that it dropped 45 feet.

I think by doing the math, you can see that this year's snowpack didn't even restore us to levels of 1 year ago.

What I think that this year's snowpack will do, is make the levels at Powell stay flat all summer, so it doesn't lose 45 feet like last year. So if we could finally get consecutive years of good runoff, we might be able to make progress at restoring the reserviors to previous levels. Next year, I would anticipate very little rise at Powell, and it all flow down to Mead. But recent history has been dismal in that regard, every time we get a good year, it is followed by bad.

[Dan and Christy]

Quick search looks like Tall isn't too far off by a 1:1 ratio. Surface area of Mead 247.1, Powell 254.1 sq mi

[turbonine]

Isn't the drop because of the Colorado flowing again to the Sea?

http://newswatch.nationalgeographic....ns-to-the-sea/