California has its ups & downs, one year the rain comes in torrents, the next year it’s water rationing. California water depends on winter snowfall in the high Sierras; this replenishes the reservoirs up stream. The most significant of which are Lake Mead and Lake Powerll.
| BOULDER CITY, Nev.—At Lake Mead’s Callville Bay Marina, exposed-rock bluffs now rise above the shoreline where the lake once covered the land. A brown-and-white sign marks a vanished 2000 shoreline—and the beginning of a decades-long regional megadrought. Farther downslope, the marina and boat slips come into view, but reaching them on foot requires a hike through 100-degree heat. The drought has transformed the man-made lake into a shrunken version of itself, with no end in sight. The falling water level threatens supplies and hydroelectric power for millions and has forced some boat ramps to close. “It’s getting pretty scary. You know, the water’s dropping to a level where they can’t keep up with marking the hazards,” a marina employee told The Epoch Times, requesting anonymity. “It’s hard for people to launch their boats because the water level is dropping at such a pace. The maintenance to keep up the launch ramps is difficult.” In some cases, shallow water has left boaters with broken propellers and scraped hulls after they’ve struck rocks and debris that were once deep underwater. The employee pointed toward a location hundreds of feet away. “Can you see the cement over there?” That’s where the water once lapped against the shoreline, the employee said. Now, green grass grows along the dry lake bottom. “You can see the years and the levels where the water was. It just keeps going down and down and down,” the employee said. “Look around. I mean, this is serious. Look how quiet it is.” But Lake Mead is only part of the story. Its fate is tied to Lake Powell, its sister reservoir about 300 miles upstream, and ultimately to the Colorado River that supplies them both. (More) |