“Frankly, I’m frustrated because the overwhelming sense I’ve gotten from the negotiations is there aren’t enough people taking this seriously enough and understanding this is about adapting to less water in this river,” Entsminger said. Officials reveal new details about the 3 sets of human remains found at Lake Mead (AP Photo/John Locher, File) John Locher/AP The National Park Service did not say in a statement how long officials think the corpse was submerged in the Boulder Beach area before it was found Monday, July 25, 2022, by people who summoned park rangers. Another body has surfaced at Lake Mead, this time in a swimming area where water levels have dropped as the Colorado River reservoir behind Hoover Dam recedes due to drought and climate change. It also did not account for the West’s booming population growth and its hotter and drier future in the face of the climate crisis.įILE - A formerly sunken boat sits high and dry along the shoreline of Lake Mead at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, on May 10, 2022, near Boulder City, Nev. There was one major problem: Having been written in the 1920s, at a time when precipitation was higher than normal, the pact overestimated how much water the Colorado River carries. Mexico – through which the river flows before it reaches the Gulf of California – was also guaranteed an allotment. The pact gave half of the river’s water to the Upper Basin states (Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico) and half to the Lower Basin (California, Arizona and Nevada). The Colorado River’s water was divvied up among seven states in the West a century ago. “So the two things we’re focused on is how do we get through the next three years without the system crashing, and then how do we develop a long term plan to sustain the Colorado River.” “We thought we were good, but the last few years have been so dry that we realized those tier reductions weren’t enough and aren’t enough,” Bill Hasencamp, the Colorado River resources manager with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, told CNN. States, water managers and tribes are now back at the negotiating table to figure out how to solve the West’s water crisis. The growing concern is that the mandatory cuts announced today – part of a system that was updated as recently as 2019 – aren’t enough to save the river in the face of a historic, climate change-driven drought. Lake Mead’s level has been around 1,040 feet this summer, just 27% of its full capacity. But the past 12 months did not bring enough rain and snow. It was just a year ago that the Department of the Interior declared the first shortage on the Colorado River – a Tier 1. In order to avoid a catastrophic collapse of the Colorado River System and a future of uncertainty and conflict, water use in the Basin must be reduced,” Interior’s assistant secretary for water and science Tanya Trujillo said in a statement. “Every sector in every state has a responsibility to ensure that water is used with maximum efficiency. Of the impacted states, Arizona will face the largest cuts – 592,000 acre-feet – or approximately 21% of the state’s yearly allotment of river water. California will not yet have cuts made to the water they receive from the Colorado River. The Tier 2 shortage means Arizona, Nevada and Mexico will have to further reduce their Colorado River use beginning in January. The federal government announced Tuesday the Colorado River will operate in a Tier 2 shortage condition for the first time starting in January as the West’s historic drought has taken a severe toll on Lake Mead.Īccording to a new projection from the Department of the Interior, Lake Mead’s water level will be below 1,050 feet above sea level come January – the threshold required to declare a Tier 2 shortage starting in 2023. The Colorado River irrigates farms, powers electric grids and provides drinking water for 40 million people.Why the Great American Lawn is terrible for the West’s water crisis.More human remains were discovered at Lake Mead as the reservoir’s water level plunges. Officials are focused on the wrong problem, advocates say
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