The Southern Nevada Water Authority announced this week that its Low Lake Pumping Station is in operation and posted photos of the highest intake visible at 1,050 feet (320 meters) above sea level in the lake behind Hoover Dam. “While this underscores the seriousness of the drought, we have been preparing for it for more than a decade,” said Bronson Mack, a spokesman for the water authority. The low intake allows Las Vegas “to maintain access to the main water supply to Lake Mead, even if water levels continue to decline due to ongoing drought and climate change,” he said. The move to start using what was considered a protective fence in case we needed it against drying taps comes as water administrators in many Colorado River-based states are taking new steps to save water amid the perpetual drought. . “We do not have enough water reserves at the moment to meet normal demand. “The water is not there,” said Rebecca Kimitch, a spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. The agency told some 6 million people in the major counties of Los Angeles, Ventura and San Bernardino to reduce their outdoor watering to one day a week from June 1, otherwise they would face severe fines. The surface level of another huge reservoir on the Colorado River, Lake Powell, fell below a critical threshold in March – raising concerns about whether the Glen Canyon Dam could continue to generate power for some 5 million customers across the West Bank. USA. Lake Mead and Lake Powell upstream are the largest man-made reservoirs in the United States, part of a system that supplies water to more than 40 million people, tribes, agriculture, and industry in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. across the southern border in Mexico. In Arizona, falling Colorado River levels have put a focus on conservation and raised fears of reduced water supplies in desert areas that include the Phoenix, Tucson, tribal areas, and farms. At Lake Mead, the new pumps are powered by an intake that opens closer to the bottom of the lake and will be completed by 2020 to ensure that water can continue to be pumped to Las Vegas, casinos, suburbs and 2.4 million people. 40 million tourists per year. The “third straw” pumps drinking water at 895 feet (272.8 meters) above sea level – below a point where no water would be released downstream of the Hoover Dam. Together, pipeline and pump projects cost more than $ 1.3 billion. Drilling began in 2014, amid forecasts that the lake level will continue to fall due to drought. The increasingly drier conditions in the region are now attributed to long-term climate change. Lake Mead, between Nevada and Arizona, peaked in July 1983 at 1,225 feet (373.4 meters) above sea level. On Friday, the level was 1,055 feet (321.6 meters) – about 30% full. Some of the steepest rocks bordering the lake show 170 feet (51.8 meters) of white mineral “bath ring”. “Without the third introduction, Southern Nevada would have closed its doors,” said Pat Mulroy, a former head of the Las Vegas-based water service who is now a consultant. “This is quite obvious, since the first straw is out of the water.” A medium level pipeline can also pump water from 1,000 feet (304.8 meters). Authorities say the water supply to Las Vegas is not immediately threatened. He points to water conservation efforts, which he says have reduced regional Colorado river water consumption by 26% since 2002, while the area’s population has grown by 49%.
