Water levels in Lake Mead, the Colorado River reservoir, fell sharply again this summer and are nearing an elevation that would set off the first-ever official water shortage on the river, The Arizona Republic reported last week.
The reservoir, which supplies roughly 30 million users in the West, dropped to 1,087 feet above sea level, or about 40 percent of capacity. Were the lake to hit 1,075 feet, allocations on the river would be cut by more than 100 billion gallons under the terms of a 2007 agreement struck by seven Western states and Mexico.
Las Vegas, which draws about 90 percent of its water from Lake Mead, is particularly vulnerable to dropping lake levels. Were levels to fall to 1,050 feet, or 26 percent capacity, one of the city’s two water intake pipes on the lake would cease functioning. In anticipation of such an event, water managers have developed a highly controversial plan to tap groundwater in northeast Nevada and transport it to the city via a multibillion-dollar pipeline.
A few wet years would do much to diminish the threat of imminent shortages, but the outlook for the river and the states that depend on it remains poor, with the arrival of La Niña in the equatorial Pacific expected to further dry out the arid West over the next two years. In Los Angeles, which has long drawn upon surplus water from the Colorado River, falling levels in Lake Mead have already brought water restrictions and penalties for everything from watering lawns on non-designated days to serving water to customers in restaurants unless it is requested first.
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http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/16/levels-plummet-in-crucial-reservoir/
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