The Rocky Mountains snow season has had a good start, but whether it will be enough to buoy levels at Lake Mead and along the Colorado River remains to be seen.
Lake Mead
The Las Vegas Valley Water District has given formal approval to rules that will drastically reduce the amount of water golf courses in the region will be allowed starting in 2024.
In recent years, Arizona has received about 36% of its water from the Colorado River. The river has long been severely overallocated, and its flows have shrunk dramatically during 23 years of megadrought.
The park service has extended the deadline for comments on various proposals for how to manage and maintain launch ramps for motorized boaters at Lake Mead.
Federal officials underscored the need for urgent action to deal with ongoing drought along the Colorado River at a water users conference in Las Vegas on Friday.
A parade of boats traveled the Las Vegas Strip as boating enthusiasts protest the possible closure of boating ramps at Lake Mead National Recreation Area.
Southern Nevada Water Authority General Manager John Entsminger said California and Arizona are going to have to shoulder the brunt of the unprecedented cuts the federal government says are needed next year.
“The common cause that we have to address is climate change induced lower flows,” commission Chair Anne Castle said. “That’s what we have to work on together. It’s not an enemy that we can defeat. It’s one that we have to live with.”
Things have only gotten worse along the river since Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton asked the Western states to come up with conservation plan, and that decline shows no signs of slowing down.
The National Park Service said, in a newsletter, that removing boat launch ramps at five lake locations remains an option.
Ironically, the community closest to Hoover Dam uses up to 500 million gallons a year one time and then casts it away — just a few miles from a shrinking Lake Mead.
A continued decline projects Lake Mead at 1,016 feet by October 2024, the Bureau of Reclamation estimates.
With the federal government calling for major cuts in water use to address the historic shortage on the Colorado River, the leaders of 30 agencies that supply cities from the Rocky Mountains to Southern California have signed an agreement committing to boost conservation, in part by pledging to target decorative grass.
The National Park Service is asking for public input on how to manage launch ramps.
The National Park Service confirmed Wednesday the recovery of human skeletal remains from Lake Mead by a park service dive team.
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