Southwest Braces as Lake Mead Water Levels Drop

[antiquie]

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Once-teeming Lake Mead marinas are idle as a 14-year drought steadily drops water levels to historic lows. Officials from nearby Las Vegas are pushing conservation but also are drilling a new pipeline to keep drawing water from the lake.

The receding shoreline at one of the main reservoirs in the vast Colorado River water system is raising concerns about the future of a network serving a perennially parched region home to 40 million people and 4 million acres of farmland.

Marina operators, water managers and farmers who for decades have chased every drop of water across the booming Southwest and part of Mexico are closely tracking the reservoir water level already at its lowest point since it was first filled in the 1930s.

Last week, officials announced an $11 million pilot program involving the federal government and water agencies in Denver, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Phoenix to pay farmers, cities and industries to reduce river water use.

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[packman]

1. Paying farmers,cities and industries

to reduce water usage? PAYING? What the hell, we have to pay them to protect themselves?

[antiquie]

2. Farmers lose and casinos win

WTF?

Officials from nearby Las Vegas are pushing conservation but also are drilling a new pipeline to keep drawing water from the lake.

[Warpy]

3. Some golf courses here in poorer NM have converted to artifical grass

on the fairways and the real stuff on the greens. That's one way to reduce massive water overusage and the golfers seem to be OK with it. Water out west is really expensive, too expensive to dump on grass for the pleasure of mowing the shit when it's in the high 90s.

Las Vegas also needs to get rid of those fountains that spray potable water into the air. While it makes the ambient air a little cooler, it's wasteful and most people don't notice the drop from 114 to 112.

[JayhawkSD]

4. San Diego still has VOLUNTARY water restrictions

There are some mandates with fines. Irrigation must be done after 6pm and before 10am, for instance, with fines for watering other than at those times. Washing cars and hosing driveways and sidewalks must be done using hoses with automatic shutoffs. Water fountains must recirculate water.

But restricting watering to three days per week is voluntary, and you may run your sprinklers seven days per week if you wish. And they are sprinklers, since drip irrigation is essentially nonexistant here. A few places have converted, but I doubt it exceeds 1% of installations.

Washing cars, sidewalks and driveways should be completely banned at this point, other than commercial car washes which recycle water. Irrigation should be mandated at a maximum of ten minutes three days per week, and we are approaching the point where landscape irrigation should be banned altogether.

[antiquie]

5. Sprinklers every morning up and down the street,

watering three inch tall forest-green grass.
We have no lawn, just low-maintenance plants which get good drinks from the neighbor's over-watering.