Endangered New Jersey: Lessons from the Lake Mead Deadpool

Lake Mead - by SpaceEconomist192, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Lake Mead in Nevada is near Las Vegas and is the nation's largest reservoir. Right now, it is so low it's getting perilously close to what's known as "deadpool." This is a level where the Hoover Dam's hydropower turbines would be shut off for the first time in its 86-year history.

Of course, cities and farms in the desert Southwest were built with the idea that they could rely on the lake and the Colorado River as their water source

When I was in Las Vegas 10 years ago, I was told that there was a water crisis and we saw restrictions on residential water use and also on the way the Vegas casinos were using water for their attractions. Now, you can go on the road crossing the Hoover Dam and see the exposed columns that for decades were hidden by water.

Still, many news reports say that even with many warnings and stories about the dire situation, day-to-day life hasn't really changed for most of the 40 million people who rely on the Colorado River for drinking water.

South of the Hoover Dam and Highway 93 in Arizona is still a place where are moving faster than almost any other state. NPR reports that loose zoning in Maricopa County and loopholes in Arizona water law make it one of the nation's fastest growing counties.

There are lessons here for all places, including New Jersey, even if we are not in a desert. Droughts are more common the past few decades. Economists predict that water may well become as valuable as oil one day. Of course, water is a renewable resource if it is treated correctly - and if it is available.

Urban areas of Arizona have been storing their legal share of Colorado River water underground. For example, Tucson has "banked" more than five and a half years of excess Colorado River water in its basin aquifers already."

Farmers are resorting to pumping groundwater because they are no longer getting any Colorado River water deliveries due to cutbacks, and the 23-year megadrought in the Colorado River basin.

Some people in the region question using the term "drought" which suggest a temporary condition that will end and it seems to be more of climate reality.

Lake Mead is currently at just 28% of capacity but some projections say it could fall to deadpool within the next few years. There is still a reduced Lake Mead for now, but marinas on the shore have had to be moved several times this year alone as the shoreline recedes.

MORE npr.org/2022/09/22/1124150368/where-the-colorado-river-crisis-is-hitting-home