US citizens did not unterstand in decades that wasting more than you have will go wrong. „Building ramps to operate boats“ is the most important job to do. 🙈😆😀
Agriculture not cites is the problem. Over 80% of the water from the Colorado river is used for farming. Time to regulate what crops are grown and stop selling to other countries.
It only provides water to the city of page and storage for Lake Meade; it’s not being overused it’s just not being filled as fast as it evaporates because of the drought
@@southwestxnorthwest Less water from the mountains is a big deal too. Icecoverage on mountain tops feeds rivers that feed everything else and we all know how empty and snow-less those mountain tops are becoming..
Read "The Cadillac Desert" ..... it was enough to make me pack up and leave Arizona some 35 plus years ago. he simply said "this is unsustainable" then proved it. I packed up and moved back to my home state Florida. I absolutely LOVED Phoenix, and have a lotta great memories .... but ... it's unsustainable.
Let me guess. It was land developers that convinced millions there was an endless supply of fresh water. You know the story: the land developers made their fortunes and left.
Well yeah, it’s the same thing in Las Vegas. Went there once and could tell that it is not sustainable. With All the pools and hotel rooms using so much water I’m surprised it has lasted this long.
The cities will be fine for a long time. Ag, not so much. You left early, waaaaaay before necessary, and I am betting it was more an excuse than the only reason. Phoenix exploded in the last 35 years, built a lot of loop highways, I-10 got bigger, and the city is going up as well as out, but you had some time in the valley, so you know what it was like. Still 1990 in Phoenix was probably pretty nice with almost 1/2 the people who are there today.
Taking more than what gets put in is so very much human. I remember in the 80's when it flooded on the lower Colorado river because neither Powell nor Mead could store anymore water. Then Las Vegas exploded in growth even as the experts warned of future water shortages. Well here we are just as predicted.
The problem is irrigators, want a consistent supply of water, but also want to take as much as possible, and these demands do not mesh with rainfall and snowpacks that are inconsistent. The US could have a consistent supply of 9Maf per year, from the colorado basin but the compact calls for 15. In wet years, farmers don't use their full allocation, but in dry years they do.
@@liam3284 Strangely enough, the same thing is going on with the Alaskan fisheries quotas. Quotas are set according to environmental parameters but the pressure to keep the commercial fisherman fishing many times conflicts with the reality of what's best for the stocks.
30 yr drought combined with people moving to the desserts (vegas, phoenix, southern Utah), golf courses, and Agra-biz using monstrous amounts of water for crops that are shipped overseas = major issues coming. Not sure how much water the dfw area has in the underground table. 100,000's people moving there too.
Define drought? The floods in 2015 almost washed out bridges in Las Vegas ... 4 years ago wells were over flowing in the valley I live in in southern Nevada
@@mazlosoutdooradventures8594 You can do your own research. Try taking a science class. One big flood washing over the land does almost nothing to solve decades of not enough rain.
Because of the nature of the basin, the lower the water level goes, the faster the rate of fall goes...Lake Powell as it was, is history, I'm thankful I got to enjoy it at it's peak four decades ago...
You forgot to mention everybody's backyard pool that's never used but constantly being filled to top it off. The car washes. The yards being watered. The long, long showers that people take.
HEY FOLKS , Lake Powell is a figment of your imagination .. I have underwater and shirts older than Lake Powell … To build this reservoir in 1956/63 was a little bit nuts . All we did was tell people to move to the desert when they should have been staying home and building up the Midwest and not wasting unsustainable resources . Our ancestors followed the water … LAKE POWELL IS IN THE DESERT , THERE IS NO WATER IN THE DESERT … LEAVE THE DESERT … I won’t say where I live but is on the shores of the five Great Lakes !!!
People have been successfully living in the desert for ever. Ever heard of the middle east. Civilizations have thrived for millenniums in deserts worse than the Southwest... In fact they built things like the pyramids, to show how successful they were
@@mazlosoutdooradventures8594 Sorry but when those civilizations were actually thriving the climate was quite different there. That's why there are so many abandoned ancient cities in the Middle East. The people left when the water dried up.
Yes and every day more water comes out of the Colorado/Green storage system from 5 big dams. So here we are today and 75 percent of all the reserves are gone. By next Oct, it will be down to 20 percent or less. 80 percent of all the water will be gone and development, agriculture, residential and recreation keeps taking more water than is flowing in. Action needed to be taken five to 10 years ago but, that did not happen and will not happen. No mater what, we can not store water. It mush flow through the turbines to generate power until it is all gone. Then all we will have is each years runoff which is only 50 percent of what is needed for 40 million people. Go look for your self. Drive North up around what was once lake then south from Hanks bill back down to the Bullfrog launch ramps. There are tens of thousands of acres that have not seen lake water in 20 - 30 years. Drive out to Pearce Ferry at the end of the Grand Canyon. Nothing but hundreds of square miles of 30 - 40 foot deep dry mud flats. In 83 the lake went 40 miles up to separation canyon. The drought could end but it is also very possible it goes on for another 100 years. If the drought continues 10 - 20 more years the South West will become the next Detroit, millions will be leaving.
@@pcmountaindog I'm not seeing a down side to the millions of California morons leaving Arizona and Nevada. They are responsible for the overgrowth of the south west! And their need for golf courses and lush green lawns and giant swimming pools in every backyard!
The long term answer is to drain Lake Powell, then mostly fill Lake Mead. This would save a lot of water that is currently lost to evaporation. It would also restore a beautiful and biologically important canyon that should never have been filled as a reservoir. In addition, lawns, golf courses, outdoor pools and water intensive crops should be ended in the southwest. These are luxuries that are no longer affordable in an era of drought and climate change. None of these things will happen of course, but it's what should be done if governments were serious about the situation.
I agree with you on the fact they should drain the idiotic glen canyon dam and restore that fishery and river to it's natural state. But disagree with the whole rationing idea. In places like Vegas and Phoenix and other cities that can't sustainably do what they do I will agree. But certainly some can afford to with there specific condition's. I believe growth should be limited to what is sustainable... But I don't think it's sustainable to buy food else where you can grow here done sustainably not like that is what is happening now. Most farming is chemically fertilized and treated not environmentally small or sustainable
The upper dam was meant to store water when the lower one was full. In any logical environmental Management of the water pal should be empty until they need fills up.... They can't seem to figure out how a natural water system would function and copy it.
Another alternative is to drain the lake then rework the dam so it can generate electricity at a much lower lake level. Fill lake mead first. The problem is the water allotments were created using faulty data from a wet period.
That answer might work for 2 - 3 years. But, at some point water usage needs to be cut in half just to stay even with what flows in. Drain all but one lake, take you pick which one you want to fill. Facts are facts. 75 percent of all the water is gone no matter with lake it's in. By next year there will only be 20 percent remaining and if the snows do not return to the mountains, it will drop to 10 percent. The problem is not where the water is stored, the problem is how much is being used. This river system does to have enough water for 40 million people now let alone 50 million 10 years from now. As far as getting that beautiful canyon back, it'sgone, it will be nothing but a dried up mud hole for the next 5000 years. What was once Glen Canyon is gone and its not coming back.
@@pcmountaindog it was named Glen canyon because there like 26 streams creeks or rivers that dumped into the Colorado in that section They call them glens when a river waterfalls into another river. So to say that it was ugly before it was a lake is extremely unlikely.. as to think that it would be ugly when that dam is gone. Which one day it will be where we take it down or mother nature does. If you look to the Glen canyon history you would probably conclude it was one gigantic mistake to begin with.
You guys are complaining about just having one ramp for boating... while the magnitude of the problem is literally water scarcity for your people. THIS IS is coping at it's worst.
This is sad. My brothers and I drove past Lake Powell in January and were shocked by how much the water had receded. We were also shocked by how little snow there was on the Wasatch mountains.
LOL how about 40 million households loosing power and possibly water supply? this is going to accelerate the mass migration in America. DONT come to Seattle we are full!
I don't know how people can swim in lakes like that. Think of all the disgusting vile things that could be sitting on the bottom or floating in it. And the water pollution from runoff as well as the fact that the water is sitting around not flowing much.
@@jamestucker8088 that's a lie! Golf course use only 10% effluent water for irrigation. There's too much salt and too many chemicals in effluent water for grass to survive with higher concentrations. The majority of effluent water for golf courses goes into their water features.
Here's the good news. I was able to go retrieve a spear gun I dropped years ago that was under 85 feet of water and a I gallon jar of pickles that was dropped as we were loading the houseboat from the speed boat. Still have not found the 2002 Olympic watch that fell while water skiing. Hoping to find my huge cast iron griddle that fell off the BBQ when the houseboat sunk... the second time.
Reports keep saying "drought" however isn't this an over usage issue? To my knowledge the snowfall amounts in the headwaters varies from normal to slightly less than normal each year. Of course "drought" in a desert area is understood.
There's always a drought or a flood period. In the south west ..... When it's flooding they scream global warming when it's a drought they scream global warming. Now they just call it climate change so they don't sound so ridiculous.... But really it's just nature.
Yes they never mention how much they let out and the available snowpack levels. Because they are at or above normal. Let's be honest they are draining the lake to stoke fear and the " climate" Agenda.
No, there's definitely a drought going on. Although after 18 of the last 20 years being bad to exceptionally bad drought it's time to realize this is the new normal. There isn't going to be enough water to refill the lakes ever again.
@@DustinBKerensky97 200 billion years of history and you are saying that the last 20 years is some how beyond repair to a point of no return and un reversible. That's hilarious how old are you?
Simple Fact California could solve most of this problem but are too fn cheap to with the whole Pacific ocean and large Desalination plants . but they choose to rely on other states to provide their water instead of bucking up and solving their own problem
True, but metropolises in California provide a tremendous amount of tax revenue that literally fund many interior states with less population. If the state of California were able to keep 100% of the taxes they generate instead of putting it into the common pot I bet they can solve their own water problem.
I am confused. I grew up in the rainy Northeast and dreamt of waterskiing on Lake Powell. The tall, sandstone canyon walls looked surreal. I now live in the Southwest, in NM. I’m now aware of the drastic changes dams cause, and the hundreds of years old “water rights” that were given to new settlers, that continue today. I visit places in NM settled on the Rio Grande, which is now a dry, dusty riverbed for much of the year. The changing ecosystem, the fact that the reservoirs supplies water to millions, but can run dry nonetheless. I’ve seen my town use water from a nearby reservoir to assist in putting out wildfires. I’ve seen extreme damage due to river flooding, and grew up boating and camping at a dammed river every summer. This year, our National forest is closed due to extreme fire risk. I see problems in all directions. The damage was done in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. If the Colorado River, in particular was restored, would the canyons, flora and fauna ever be repaired? Could endangered species thrive again? Would agriculture be able to continue in these desert regions? Would people be able to use alternative water sources? Without manmade reservoirs, NM would have very few lakes (if any). I don’t take any media sources at face value, but these are the questions I have, and haven’t been able to answer them without political and other biases getting in the way.
Well the solution is to remove the dams, let the rivers be wild and for people to conserve water like they actually live in the desert. Instead the people of Utah use far more water than anyone else in the West. They aren't going to change, so not my problem is a valid response.
They did a report on it. THey could've ignored it. Not sure what'd make you happy about a response. People either leave or can't. Not sure what else you'd do.
@@viasevenvai Reporting on basic measurements such as water levels does not take any satisfaction to do. You and I can do that. Locals don't even need the data, they can see it. As for anyone not living in this area and immediately effected by it, this is just entertainment. Just another story on Mans road to its own Destruction. A future we are gleefully sprinting towards.
@@PeterLawton That's a complex question that requires a complex answer. Unfortunately that can't be touched in a simple YT comment. But if I were to simplify it in one word: Sustainable. Its a word that gets tossed around too much. We need to respect Man is not Greater then Nature.
FYI people, this lake is huge. It doesn’t just “drop” 44 feet in a year from evaporation. They have no water management and don’t release water in controlled ammounts
The only fix is to demolish Glen canyon and transfer all the water to Lake Mead. And if it gets much lower I'm sure this government will propose it. The question is if the opposing party will see reality or try to start yet another culture war to distract their base?
Boaters ??? Ummm...I think were missing the big picture here. Were building more houses in California, that is how smart our "leaders" are. I wonder how many will be boaters ?
Lol! dependingon the circumstances conservative either blame Californians for leaving California, or for not leaving California. Which is it? It kind of proves you're just using them as a scape goat to ignore the fact that the climate has changed, the water is gone.
@@will7its no government of any sort will stop growth for any reason, and this principle applies to all governments that exist, have ever existed or will ever exist. What this means is that humankind behaves very much like a cancer on the planet and will have to be cured in the manner cancer is cured in a human.
I would be fine with it becoming a river again. Let Lake Mead hold the reserves. The Grand Canyon needs to be regenerated with sediment deposits for riparian habitats.
Too many people and too much development in an area that was never going to be able to support either. The short sighted arrogance of people thinking they can ignore nature and reality is coming home to roost.
Definitely hitting in Florida too, and only getting worse. Way too many people, mismanagement to the max. Flow levels in springs, aquifer and rivers going down, more pollution, way too much development/ land grabbing going on. Not fixing roads but trying to put up pointless "just in case" toll roads for potential sprawl or hurricane evacuation over wetlands and nature preserves... There's going to be more frequent, intense and combative water wars in the coming decades-- I'm nearly sure of it
@@Dman9fp I lived in Florida as a kid. I think the population was ~5 million. Lots of open space, clean beaches, paradise for an outdoor kid. I went to key west a few years ago. Everywhere, wall to wall people and houses. I won’t bother doing that again. We’ve opted for a quantity over quality lifestyle. Just keep packing them in. Who cares what the effect is. The two most important things any country can do is have a real border and a population policy that takes into account what the environment can sustainably support longterm. We have neither.
Take short showers, turn the faucet off when you're brushing your teeth, turn the water off while you are scrubbing and soaping your dishes up. Don't let water run while you walk away from your sinks. We have to not waste water, it is a precious resource that we cannot survive without. ✌
What if the dams were all built in abnormally wet seasons, and this dryer period is actually a return to normal? Maybe it's time to plan on the water level never retuning to former depths. Is it time to plan on tapping the Missouri via pipelines or the Sea of Cortez with desalinization plants? There are solutions, just none of them cheap.
The level of Lake Powell should not be controlled by the demand from CA. It was built to control the flow of the river. Something is rotten in the Bureau of Reclamation. Iguana
The Colorado River including Lake Powell is managed by the Congress and the Bureau of Reclamation because it serves multiple states and not just California. You may be upset about California seemingly "getting to drain Lake Powell" But why should Colorado even let the river flow into Utah to fill Lake Powell? ;) That seems pretty rotten too.
Open reservoirs in the desert are about as good an idea as sprawling US designed cities in the desert. The vast majority of that water goes to California to grow 15% of our overall food supply. We could be using intensive horticultural tech from places like Israel and Jordan to grow the same amount of food, or much much more, using a fraction the water. But that would take government regulations to actually tell corporate "farmers" what to do. With the Lobby as powerful as it is, that'll never happen
Lake Powell is a reservoir and was built to store water for use during droughts and for recreation; it’s doing its job exactly as intended. But so much water is lost by evaporation and both Meade and Powell are receding that it would be better served if it was drained into Meade, thus refilling the only reservoir out of the two that stores water for power and drinking.
But.......but, its green energy so it has to good, would have made more sense to take some of that profit from the power produced and start a solar farm, replace the lost output, then start thinking about getting water from somewhere else, desalination, pipelines let the lake fill up, stop farming in the desert, stop golfing in the desert, stop building homes in the desert, go back and read the last bit about the DESERT, there's a clue in there somewhere see if you can spot it.
The South West and CA got 2 choice, fix the problem or keep the water problem! CA got 85,9 m acre foot, Coloumbia river dumps 191,3 m foot into The Pasific every year. Move 10% off this water. Make a 365m long tunnel from Red Bluff. NV, AZ, Mexico can then keep Colorado water.
Could you replace the hydro electric generators with a nuclear generator? Nuclear uses ~3,000 acre feet of water daily vs the almost 20,000 released currently each day. I’m not sure the impacts to the downstream river needs, but hydro electric force is to release water even during winter months
The bigger Vegas gets the more water they use if you average the water out with good years and bad years . You will not get ahead on the good years because you keep expanding Vegas and using more water . So the bigger Vegas gets the lower the lake will get .
Nevada only uses 10% of the shared water from the Colorado river. Not to mention Nevada has the largest aquifers in the country that can sustain Southern Nevada for 7 years at least! If you want to blame a state blame California and their super duper 'cool' governor who purposely wasted and dumped their fresh water to save a species of fish. If we 'desert'ify golf courses (90 million gallons of water a year per golf course), stop growing almonds in the Californian desert we may see some results.
Soon Glen Canyon will be free again, although its ecosystem will be altered. Hayduke would love it. Search for alternatives or adaptation to the changing water and power situation. Let Glen Canyon thrive again.
The biggest idea I am trying to express is tunneling aqueducts from the coast, in this case the west coast of the USA inland to feed combination geothermal power and sea water desalination plants. The idea seems to be so big that no one has considered it possible but I believe it is not only possible but it is necessary. For over a century the fossil water contained in aquifers has been pumped out to feed agriculture, industry and municipal water needs. The natural water cycle cant refill fossil water deposits that were filled 10,000 years ago when the glaciers melted after the last ice age. Without refilling these aquifers there is not much of a future for the region of the United states. As a result ground levels in some areas of the San Joaquin Valley have subsided by more than 30 feet. Similar fossil water depletion is happening in other regions all around the world. TBM and tunneling technology has matured and further developments in the industry are poised to speed up the tunneling process and it's these tunnels that are the only way to move large volumes of water from the ocean inland. The water is moved inland to areas where it can be desalinated in geothermal plants producing clean water and power. In many cases the water will recharge surface reservoirs where it will be used first to make more hydro power before being released into rivers and canal systems. It's very important however to not stop tunneling at these first stops but to continue several legs until the water has traveled from the ocean under mountain ranges to interior states. Along the way water will flow down grade through tunnels and rise in geothermal loops to fill mountain top pumped hydro batteries several times before eventually recharging several major aquifers. What I am proposing is essentially reversing the flow of the Colorado River Compact. Bringing water from the coast of California first to mountaintop reservoirs then to the deserts of Nevada and Arizona and on to Utah, New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming. This big idea looks past any individual city or states problems and looks at the whole and by using first principles identifies the actual problem and only solution. Thank you for your time, I would like the opportunity to explain in further detail and answer any questions. A better future is possible,
We have the ability to transfer FLOOD water from the midwest to this area.. In california I saw 12' dia. water transfer lines 100 miles long going in all the time..
The floods happen only during the spring melt. 12' dia pipeline 800 miles to the headwaters of the Colorado would be extremely expensive. Add to that the price of pumping the water over that distance and 8,000 ft over the Continental Divide is hard for us to imagine. Until the price of a barrel of water equals the price of a barrel of oil, it's not economically feasible.
Its okay America is the most richest country in the world. We can fix this if politicians just throws money at it. But sadly these politicians eagerly spends our money on foreign military aid rather than spending on our own.
Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to build big cities in the desert.
US citizens did not unterstand in decades that wasting more than you have will go wrong. „Building ramps to operate boats“ is the most important job to do. 🙈😆😀
Agriculture not cites is the problem. Over 80% of the water from the Colorado river is used for farming. Time to regulate what crops are grown and stop selling to other countries.
Tell that to the people in the middle east
@@justsomeguy6474 how about We start doing sustainable agriculture practices
Tell them people in the desert to stop breeding hahaha
The lake was never meant to have the millions of gallons drew from it thats happening on today’s scale . It’s a over usage problem.
Actually it was meant to slow billions of gallons of flood waters and release them annually
It wasn't meant to always be full
It only provides water to the city of page and storage for Lake Meade; it’s not being overused it’s just not being filled as fast as it evaporates because of the drought
@@southwestxnorthwest lake .Mojave and Havasu stay full though
@@southwestxnorthwest Less water from the mountains is a big deal too. Icecoverage on mountain tops feeds rivers that feed everything else and we all know how empty and snow-less those mountain tops are becoming..
@@mazlosoutdooradventures8594 they are also downstream
Let's build another golf course
Don't even have the water, to water the grass😄😄
Or 10,000 new homes
Hey can we get that pipeline over to St. George already?
Vegas needs more fountains. Send the water to Lake Mead.
@@katieandkevinsears7724 all the fountains in Vegas are fed with reclaimed water..... so enjoy the fountains when in Vegas without guilt.
Read "The Cadillac Desert" ..... it was enough to make me pack up and leave Arizona some 35 plus years ago. he simply said "this is unsustainable" then proved it. I packed up and moved back to my home state Florida. I absolutely LOVED Phoenix, and have a lotta great memories .... but ... it's unsustainable.
Let me guess. It was land developers that convinced millions there was an endless supply of fresh water. You know the story: the land developers made their fortunes and left.
Then he went to Florida just in time to see it drowned...Will somebody see what he's up to now?
Well yeah, it’s the same thing in Las Vegas. Went there once and could tell that it is not sustainable. With All the pools and hotel rooms using so much water I’m surprised it has lasted this long.
The cities will be fine for a long time. Ag, not so much. You left early, waaaaaay before necessary, and I am betting it was more an excuse than the only reason. Phoenix exploded in the last 35 years, built a lot of loop highways, I-10 got bigger, and the city is going up as well as out, but you had some time in the valley, so you know what it was like. Still 1990 in Phoenix was probably pretty nice with almost 1/2 the people who are there today.
@@kennyw871 No, it was pork barrel politics and unsustainable water projects.
Taking more than what gets put in is so very much human. I remember in the 80's when it flooded on the lower Colorado river because neither Powell nor Mead could store anymore water. Then Las Vegas exploded in growth even as the experts warned of future water shortages. Well here we are just as predicted.
Where did the snows go?
The problem is irrigators, want a consistent supply of water, but also want to take as much as possible, and these demands do not mesh with rainfall and snowpacks that are inconsistent. The US could have a consistent supply of 9Maf per year, from the colorado basin but the compact calls for 15. In wet years, farmers don't use their full allocation, but in dry years they do.
@@liam3284 Strangely enough, the same thing is going on with the Alaskan fisheries quotas. Quotas are set according to environmental parameters but the pressure to keep the commercial fisherman fishing many times conflicts with the reality of what's best for the stocks.
30 yr drought combined with people moving to the desserts (vegas, phoenix, southern Utah), golf courses, and Agra-biz using monstrous amounts of water for crops that are shipped overseas = major issues coming. Not sure how much water the dfw area has in the underground table. 100,000's people moving there too.
Define drought? The floods in 2015 almost washed out bridges in Las Vegas ... 4 years ago wells were over flowing in the valley I live in in southern Nevada
@@mazlosoutdooradventures8594 floods don't end droughts, they usually just cause destruction as the water rushes by.
@@samd1405 what is a drought????
What about all the church’s they built in every Neighborhood
@@mazlosoutdooradventures8594 You can do your own research. Try taking a science class. One big flood washing over the land does almost nothing to solve decades of not enough rain.
I have a solution. Don’t build lakes, dams and cities in deserts. You can’t ever win when fighting against Mother Nature.
Exactly right. It’s not a drought it’s a desert. Everything has been drying out since the beginning of time.
Because of the nature of the basin, the lower the water level goes, the faster the rate of fall goes...Lake Powell as it was, is history, I'm thankful I got to enjoy it at it's peak four decades ago...
Twice as much water is going out then coming in it’s not rocket science
It kinda is haha, conservation of mass
Watering those golf courses and tropical crops in the desert isn't working out long term.
You forgot to mention everybody's backyard pool that's never used but constantly being filled to top it off. The car washes. The yards being watered. The long, long showers that people take.
More likely people...showering, washing dishes, etc.
But my alfalfa fields! They're taking our jerbs!!
Too many people using the water. It's never mentioned in the news.
HEY FOLKS , Lake Powell is a figment of your imagination .. I have underwater and shirts older than Lake Powell … To build this reservoir in 1956/63 was a little bit nuts . All we did was tell people to move to the desert when they should have been staying home and building up the Midwest and not wasting unsustainable resources .
Our ancestors followed the water … LAKE POWELL IS IN THE DESERT , THERE IS NO WATER IN THE DESERT … LEAVE THE DESERT … I won’t say where I live but is on the shores of the five Great Lakes !!!
People have been successfully living in the desert for ever. Ever heard of the middle east. Civilizations have thrived for millenniums in deserts worse than the Southwest...
In fact they built things like the pyramids, to show how successful they were
@@mazlosoutdooradventures8594 the pyramids were built on the edge a river valley, they had water.
@@mazlosoutdooradventures8594 Sorry but when those civilizations were actually thriving the climate was quite different there. That's why there are so many abandoned ancient cities in the Middle East. The people left when the water dried up.
@@samd1405 are you saying no one lives in the middle east now.
@@samd1405 460+million people still thrive in the Middle East in 17 different countries
California golf courses and mansions are still very green.
Also plenty of wine grape vineyards and pot farms using water.
Yeah and all their college football fields and baseball fields lol. Idiots
California is a cancer
Yes and every day more water comes out of the Colorado/Green storage system from 5 big dams. So here we are today and 75 percent of all the reserves are gone. By next Oct, it will be down to 20 percent or less. 80 percent of all the water will be gone and development, agriculture, residential and recreation keeps taking more water than is flowing in. Action needed to be taken five to 10 years ago but, that did not happen and will not happen. No mater what, we can not store water. It mush flow through the turbines to generate power until it is all gone. Then all we will have is each years runoff which is only 50 percent of what is needed for 40 million people. Go look for your self. Drive North up around what was once lake then south from Hanks bill back down to the Bullfrog launch ramps. There are tens of thousands of acres that have not seen lake water in 20 - 30 years. Drive out to Pearce Ferry at the end of the Grand Canyon. Nothing but hundreds of square miles of 30 - 40 foot deep dry mud flats. In 83 the lake went 40 miles up to separation canyon.
The drought could end but it is also very possible it goes on for another 100 years. If the drought continues 10 - 20 more years the South West will become the next Detroit, millions will be leaving.
@@pcmountaindog I'm not seeing a down side to the millions of California morons leaving Arizona and Nevada.
They are responsible for the overgrowth of the south west!
And their need for golf courses and lush green lawns and giant swimming pools in every backyard!
The long term answer is to drain Lake Powell, then mostly fill Lake Mead. This would save a lot of water that is currently lost to evaporation. It would also restore a beautiful and biologically important canyon that should never have been filled as a reservoir. In addition, lawns, golf courses, outdoor pools and water intensive crops should be ended in the southwest. These are luxuries that are no longer affordable in an era of drought and climate change. None of these things will happen of course, but it's what should be done if governments were serious about the situation.
I agree with you on the fact they should drain the idiotic glen canyon dam and restore that fishery and river to it's natural state.
But disagree with the whole rationing idea. In places like Vegas and Phoenix and other cities that can't sustainably do what they do I will agree. But certainly some can afford to with there specific condition's. I believe growth should be limited to what is sustainable... But I don't think it's sustainable to buy food else where you can grow here done sustainably not like that is what is happening now. Most farming is chemically fertilized and treated not environmentally small or sustainable
The upper dam was meant to store water when the lower one was full. In any logical environmental Management of the water pal should be empty until they need fills up.... They can't seem to figure out how a natural water system would function and copy it.
Another alternative is to drain the lake then rework the dam so it can generate electricity at a much lower lake level. Fill lake mead first. The problem is the water allotments were created using faulty data from a wet period.
That answer might work for 2 - 3 years. But, at some point water usage needs to be cut in half just to stay even with what flows in. Drain all but one lake, take you pick which one you want to fill. Facts are facts. 75 percent of all the water is gone no matter with lake it's in. By next year there will only be 20 percent remaining and if the snows do not return to the mountains, it will drop to 10 percent. The problem is not where the water is stored, the problem is how much is being used. This river system does to have enough water for 40 million people now let alone 50 million 10 years from now. As far as getting that beautiful canyon back, it'sgone, it will be nothing but a dried up mud hole for the next 5000 years. What was once Glen Canyon is gone and its not coming back.
@@pcmountaindog it was named Glen canyon because there like 26 streams creeks or rivers that dumped into the Colorado in that section
They call them glens when a river waterfalls into another river. So to say that it was ugly before it was a lake is extremely unlikely.. as to think that it would be ugly when that dam is gone. Which one day it will be where we take it down or mother nature does. If you look to the Glen canyon history you would probably conclude it was one gigantic mistake to begin with.
You guys are complaining about just having one ramp for boating... while the magnitude of the problem is literally water scarcity for your people. THIS IS is coping at it's worst.
Sounds like the same people that think voting for scammers and criminals is going to give them good results.
“Rising electricity costs around the west”. Great news for promoting all of the electric vehicles.
And Californians are still moving to Arizona, Utah, and Nevada... Making things worse.
This is sad. My brothers and I drove past Lake Powell in January and were shocked by how much the water had receded. We were also shocked by how little snow there was on the Wasatch mountains.
LOL how about 40 million households loosing power and possibly water supply? this is going to accelerate the mass migration in America. DONT come to Seattle we are full!
Got to see it and swim in it in ‘96. Just like the Haile Bopp Comet, a once in a lifetime opportunity. So sad to see it go!🥺
I don't know how people can swim in lakes like that. Think of all the disgusting vile things that could be sitting on the bottom or floating in it. And the water pollution from runoff as well as the fact that the water is sitting around not flowing much.
F boaters. Without that water the southwest if F-ed. IMO Lake Powell will never be full again.
God forbid golf courses wouldn't get water.
Most golf courses in California are watered with treated sewer water that would otherwise just drain into the ocean.
@@jamestucker8088 that's a lie!
Golf course use only 10% effluent water for irrigation.
There's too much salt and too many chemicals in effluent water for grass to survive with higher concentrations.
The majority of effluent water for golf courses goes into their water features.
Here's the good news. I was able to go retrieve a spear gun I dropped years ago that was under 85 feet of water and a I gallon jar of pickles that was dropped as we were loading the houseboat from the speed boat. Still have not found the 2002 Olympic watch that fell while water skiing. Hoping to find my huge cast iron griddle that fell off the BBQ when the houseboat sunk... the second time.
I would stay away from there, sounds like it's bad luck.
Stay on land or quit boozing your way through life...nature doesn't need your junk!
Well, way to put a posative spin on all this mess.......🙃
Dude….😒
🤣🤣🤣🤣.... my man said "the second time" Im dead
Reports keep saying "drought" however isn't this an over usage issue? To my knowledge the snowfall amounts in the headwaters varies from normal to slightly less than normal each year. Of course "drought" in a desert area is understood.
There's always a drought or a flood period. In the south west ..... When it's flooding they scream global warming when it's a drought they scream global warming. Now they just call it climate change so they don't sound so ridiculous.... But really it's just nature.
Yes they never mention how much they let out and the available snowpack levels. Because they are at or above normal.
Let's be honest they are draining the lake to stoke fear and the " climate" Agenda.
They say drought to support their global warming montra.
No, there's definitely a drought going on. Although after 18 of the last 20 years being bad to exceptionally bad drought it's time to realize this is the new normal. There isn't going to be enough water to refill the lakes ever again.
@@DustinBKerensky97 200 billion years of history and you are saying that the last 20 years is some how beyond repair to a point of no return and un reversible. That's hilarious how old are you?
Shouldn't of destroyed a whole eco system by putting dams up in the desert for golf courses in the first place
Simple Fact California could solve most of this problem but are too fn cheap to with the whole Pacific ocean and large Desalination plants . but they choose to rely on other states to provide their water instead of bucking up and solving their own problem
They pay for their water. They can pay higher raters and buy law they are entitled to it. Desalination costs 100X more per gallon.
True, but metropolises in California provide a tremendous amount of tax revenue that literally fund many interior states with less population. If the state of California were able to keep 100% of the taxes they generate instead of putting it into the common pot I bet they can solve their own water problem.
I am confused. I grew up in the rainy Northeast and dreamt of waterskiing on Lake Powell. The tall, sandstone canyon walls looked surreal. I now live in the Southwest, in NM. I’m now aware of the drastic changes dams cause, and the hundreds of years old “water rights” that were given to new settlers, that continue today. I visit places in NM settled on the Rio Grande, which is now a dry, dusty riverbed for much of the year. The changing ecosystem, the fact that the reservoirs supplies water to millions, but can run dry nonetheless. I’ve seen my town use water from a nearby reservoir to assist in putting out wildfires. I’ve seen extreme damage due to river flooding, and grew up boating and camping at a dammed river every summer. This year, our National forest is closed due to extreme fire risk. I see problems in all directions. The damage was done in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. If the Colorado River, in particular was restored, would the canyons, flora and fauna ever be repaired? Could endangered species thrive again? Would agriculture be able to continue in these desert regions? Would people be able to use alternative water sources? Without manmade reservoirs, NM would have very few lakes (if any). I don’t take any media sources at face value, but these are the questions I have, and haven’t been able to answer them without political and other biases getting in the way.
Idk maybe planting no tress while living in a desert with golf courses wasnt the best idea.
I like how everyone watches and shrugs their shoulders. Not my problem.
Well the solution is to remove the dams, let the rivers be wild and for people to conserve water like they actually live in the desert. Instead the people of Utah use far more water than anyone else in the West. They aren't going to change, so not my problem is a valid response.
They did a report on it. THey could've ignored it. Not sure what'd make you happy about a response. People either leave or can't. Not sure what else you'd do.
@@viasevenvai Reporting on basic measurements such as water levels does not take any satisfaction to do. You and I can do that. Locals don't even need the data, they can see it.
As for anyone not living in this area and immediately effected by it, this is just entertainment. Just another story on Mans road to its own Destruction. A future we are gleefully sprinting towards.
@@chrisklugh what do you suggest?
@@PeterLawton That's a complex question that requires a complex answer. Unfortunately that can't be touched in a simple YT comment. But if I were to simplify it in one word: Sustainable. Its a word that gets tossed around too much. We need to respect Man is not Greater then Nature.
Way too much pressure on this reservoir for water.
Ya think?
@@johnjaco5544 he does
IDGAF...make stupid choices, get stupid results.
The water level goes in the opposite direction of the population. If that keeps rising, the lake will never recover.
Time for residents of the Southwest to embrace the horror. :-(
Nope, gotta blame someone. Mexicans!
Nothings going to change if we don't change our society drastically
Taxes will fix it make sure you pay extra
Enjoyed a great houseboat trip there in 1989. All good things come to an end. Especially in nature.
This is just the beginning, get used to it America.
a desert with a shitload of people living in it is low on water? you dont say!
🤣👍
And how are they planning on powering all the eventual elect vehicles? After they destroy the oil industries ?
The environmentalists haven't thought about that yet, because it hasn't hit them yet.
FYI people, this lake is huge. It doesn’t just “drop” 44 feet in a year from evaporation. They have no water management and don’t release water in controlled ammounts
Do They release it all at once?
@@mazlosoutdooradventures8594 No he has no idea what he's talking about. Got an opinion, though, and he's gonna share it with you.
@@ReginaldJKornblow everyone got an opinion on it... None seem worth repeating though
The Government better figure out a way to make it rain or really big problems are coming soon for the reservoirs !!!!!
The lake's full capacity is around 8 Trillion gallons, at 25% capacity it would need 6 Trillion gallons to 'top it off'...
Easy fix but noooo our government is More worried about gender transformation.
The only fix is to demolish Glen canyon and transfer all the water to Lake Mead. And if it gets much lower I'm sure this government will propose it. The question is if the opposing party will see reality or try to start yet another culture war to distract their base?
oh yeah, suuuper easy fix
Educated in public schools, up to 8th grade, huh?
And what exactly is the "easy fix" wipe the drool off your chin and tell us.
Boaters ??? Ummm...I think were missing the big picture here. Were building more houses in California, that is how smart our "leaders" are. I wonder how many will be boaters ?
Republicans are opposed to restricting growth and democrats would never prevent a developer from building since capitalism demands infinite growth.
Lol! dependingon the circumstances conservative either blame Californians for leaving California, or for not leaving California. Which is it? It kind of proves you're just using them as a scape goat to ignore the fact that the climate has changed, the water is gone.
@@sentientflower7891 New development means more tax dollars.....yaay
@@will7its no government of any sort will stop growth for any reason, and this principle applies to all governments that exist, have ever existed or will ever exist. What this means is that humankind behaves very much like a cancer on the planet and will have to be cured in the manner cancer is cured in a human.
@@sentientflower7891 I cant wait......😅
Let's build another housing project.
It's over, west states. It's over.
Nice oil slick on the pond
coming soon...Powell Pond.
I would be fine with it becoming a river again. Let Lake Mead hold the reserves. The Grand Canyon needs to be regenerated with sediment deposits for riparian habitats.
Stop pushing the green agenda because there will be dire consequences. You guys never think about those things.
Letting it become a river again includes taking out all dams!
It's hard to raise the level of the lake when you keep pumping it out to power up vegas
Long live hayduke!
Ed Abbey’s revenge
Odd they focus on the least important issue of all, boaters. This is a water supply issue not a recreational issue.
THAT right there is the problem with America- fools who think going fishing is the most important reason for the "water to come back"
It’s sad seeing lake powell disappear
Edward Abbey was right.
Get rid of liberal/Democrats in power and elect people who aren’t idiots and the situation will improve
Free Glen Canyon
How will i charge my new car 🤷🏼♂️
Too many people and too much development in an area that was never going to be able to support either. The short sighted arrogance of people thinking they can ignore nature and reality is coming home to roost.
Definitely hitting in Florida too, and only getting worse. Way too many people, mismanagement to the max. Flow levels in springs, aquifer and rivers going down, more pollution, way too much development/ land grabbing going on. Not fixing roads but trying to put up pointless "just in case" toll roads for potential sprawl or hurricane evacuation over wetlands and nature preserves...
There's going to be more frequent, intense and combative water wars in the coming decades-- I'm nearly sure of it
@@Dman9fp
I lived in Florida as a kid. I think the population was ~5 million. Lots of open space, clean beaches, paradise for an outdoor kid. I went to key west a few years ago. Everywhere, wall to wall people and houses. I won’t bother doing that again. We’ve opted for a quantity over quality lifestyle. Just keep packing them in. Who cares what the effect is. The two most important things any country can do is have a real border and a population policy that takes into account what the environment can sustainably support longterm. We have neither.
OVERUSE Has nothing to do with drought.
It does when it come to climate change.
What dam was built 1st, Lake Mead or Lake Powell? I say Lake Mead was built 1st. Save Lake Mead 1st!
Take short showers, turn the faucet off when you're brushing your teeth, turn the water off while you are scrubbing and soaping your dishes up. Don't let water run while you walk away from your sinks. We have to not waste water, it is a precious resource that we cannot survive without. ✌
What happened to the water from upstream?
it comes from snowmelt in the surrounding mountain ranges. All of which are also experiencing drought cinditions.
@@TechandDoc I agreed and I believed those mountain range are hundreds of miles away. Lots could happened to that water.
Rising electric costs!!!! So it is done on purpose
The really wild part is that people are still building as fast as they can.
Why not install sump pumps, running off auxiliary power to send water upstream, back into the dam?? Is this NOT RECYCLING?
What if the dams were all built in abnormally wet seasons, and this dryer period is actually a return to normal? Maybe it's time to plan on the water level never retuning to former depths. Is it time to plan on tapping the Missouri via pipelines or the Sea of Cortez with desalinization plants? There are solutions, just none of them cheap.
Use nuclear power and stop using the dam
The level of Lake Powell should not be controlled by the demand from CA. It was built to control the flow of the river. Something is rotten in the Bureau of Reclamation.
Iguana
The Colorado River including Lake Powell is managed by the Congress and the Bureau of Reclamation because it serves multiple states and not just California.
You may be upset about California seemingly "getting to drain Lake Powell"
But why should Colorado even let the river flow into Utah to fill Lake Powell? ;) That seems pretty rotten too.
Instead of building more ramps they should extend the ramps to run ways for plane !
Are you stupid
You realize these aren't flat right? Boat ramps would be a terrible place to land a plane even if they were big enough
Open reservoirs in the desert are about as good an idea as sprawling US designed cities in the desert.
The vast majority of that water goes to California to grow 15% of our overall food supply. We could be using intensive horticultural tech from places like Israel and Jordan to grow the same amount of food, or much much more, using a fraction the water. But that would take government regulations to actually tell corporate "farmers" what to do. With the Lobby as powerful as it is, that'll never happen
Lake Powell is a reservoir and was built to store water for use during droughts and for recreation; it’s doing its job exactly as intended. But so much water is lost by evaporation and both Meade and Powell are receding that it would be better served if it was drained into Meade, thus refilling the only reservoir out of the two that stores water for power and drinking.
Evaporation?
@@jotterson1156 that’s correct, evaporation.
@@southwestxnorthwest so...no other force is at play? Only evaporation?
It evaporated from the golf courses and fountains in Vegas.
@@jotterson1156 since you are asking, no other factors, only evaporation. If anyone else asks, it’s not the only reason.
2:14 I see Cheddar Bob is finally doing well for himself. Good for you buddy!!!
And that is what happens when "man" builds an artificial lake where "Mother Nature" never intended one to be there.
Lake Mead isn't in any great condition either .....
But.......but, its green energy so it has to good, would have made more sense to take some of that profit from the power produced and start a solar farm, replace the lost output, then start thinking about getting water from somewhere else, desalination, pipelines let the lake fill up, stop farming in the desert, stop golfing in the desert, stop building homes in the desert, go back and read the last bit about the DESERT, there's a clue in there somewhere see if you can spot it.
The South West and CA got 2 choice, fix the problem or keep the water problem!
CA got 85,9 m acre foot, Coloumbia river dumps 191,3 m foot into The Pasific every year. Move 10% off this water. Make a 365m long tunnel from Red Bluff. NV, AZ, Mexico can then keep Colorado water.
stop draining it
So wonder the Democrats are t blaming DJT! FJB!🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Wow, so if the dam is out of business then Las Vegas will go pitch black?????
No there still building and promoting the city as if nothing is wrong.
There is no coming back from this
Nature will always have its way.
Could you replace the hydro electric generators with a nuclear generator? Nuclear uses ~3,000 acre feet of water daily vs the almost 20,000 released currently each day. I’m not sure the impacts to the downstream river needs, but hydro electric force is to release water even during winter months
People in the desert need to buy solar panels. Plenty of sun in AZ
Recreation versus survival.
Droughts come and go. Water usage ........... that's the problem. Choke the dam's waterflow back to a trickle and watch the lake revive in 2-3 years.
The bigger Vegas gets the more water they use if you average the water out with good years and bad years . You will not get ahead on the good years because you keep expanding Vegas and using more water . So the bigger Vegas gets the lower the lake will get .
Nevada only uses 10% of the shared water from the Colorado river. Not to mention Nevada has the largest aquifers in the country that can sustain Southern Nevada for 7 years at least! If you want to blame a state blame California and their super duper 'cool' governor who purposely wasted and dumped their fresh water to save a species of fish. If we 'desert'ify golf courses (90 million gallons of water a year per golf course), stop growing almonds in the Californian desert we may see some results.
@Baby Blu3 yeah you should be just fine. Fine. Everything is just…fine bud
It will never end till California builds massive desalination plants like Israel and Saudi Arabia , theirs are so productive they can sell water !
Keep people off the lakes. Less surface disturbance hopefully will result in less evaporation.
Division to other places on earth is killing American life
Soon Glen Canyon will be free again, although its ecosystem will be altered. Hayduke would love it. Search for alternatives or adaptation to the changing water and power situation. Let Glen Canyon thrive again.
It’s exciting cant wait to see Vegas dry up lol
The biggest idea I am trying to express is tunneling aqueducts from the coast, in this case the west coast of the USA inland to feed combination geothermal power and sea water desalination plants. The idea seems to be so big that no one has considered it possible but I believe it is not only possible but it is necessary. For over a century the fossil water contained in aquifers has been pumped out to feed agriculture, industry and municipal water needs. The natural water cycle cant refill fossil water deposits that were filled 10,000 years ago when the glaciers melted after the last ice age. Without refilling these aquifers there is not much of a future for the region of the United states. As a result ground levels in some areas of the San Joaquin Valley have subsided by more than 30 feet. Similar fossil water depletion is happening in other regions all around the world. TBM and tunneling technology has matured and further developments in the industry are poised to speed up the tunneling process and it's these tunnels that are the only way to move large volumes of water from the ocean inland. The water is moved inland to areas where it can be desalinated in geothermal plants producing clean water and power. In many cases the water will recharge surface reservoirs where it will be used first to make more hydro power before being released into rivers and canal systems. It's very important however to not stop tunneling at these first stops but to continue several legs until the water has traveled from the ocean under mountain ranges to interior states. Along the way water will flow down grade through tunnels and rise in geothermal loops to fill mountain top pumped hydro batteries several times before eventually recharging several major aquifers. What I am proposing is essentially reversing the flow of the Colorado River Compact. Bringing water from the coast of California first to mountaintop reservoirs then to the deserts of Nevada and Arizona and on to Utah, New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming. This big idea looks past any individual city or states problems and looks at the whole and by using first principles identifies the actual problem and only solution.
Thank you for your time, I would like the opportunity to explain in further detail and answer any questions.
A better future is possible,
You’re going to need a bigger boat ramp.
Build a dam in the middle of the desert, that was some shitforbrains idea.
We have the ability to transfer FLOOD water from the midwest to this area.. In california I saw 12' dia.
water transfer lines 100 miles long going in all the time..
The floods happen only during the spring melt. 12' dia pipeline 800 miles to the headwaters of the Colorado would be extremely expensive. Add to that the price of pumping the water over that distance and 8,000 ft over the Continental Divide is hard for us to imagine. Until the price of a barrel of water equals the price of a barrel of oil, it's not economically feasible.
While you're there, can you check for a pair of Oakley sunglasses I lost 25 years ago?
How will we wash our cars or water our lawns?
Lake Powell's losing streak = AMERICAS NEWEST-SAND BOX !
Now would be a good time for everyone who depends on the energy from Glen Canyon Dam, to switch to a combination of solar and wind energy…
🤣👌yeah!
Its okay America is the most richest country in the world. We can fix this if politicians just throws money at it. But sadly these politicians eagerly spends our money on foreign military aid rather than spending on our own.
Who couldn't see this happening?
Nice idea, However Building in the desert would never be sustainable.