Water shortage spans the Southwest – but so does water progress
For decades, Lake Mead has represented a vibrant life in the desert for people in both the U.S. and Mexico. From farmers in both countries to the millions who call cities like Las Vegas and Phoenix home, the massive reservoir has anchored family and commercial life, watering a long-term population bloom in the desert Southwest. Now, the lake is shrinking in the face of a 22-year drought – the driest years on record.
Monday, for the first time, the federal government declared an official water shortage in Lake Mead. To stand atop the Hoover Dam, looking at the “bathtub ring” of chalky calcium deposits marking the dropping water level, and to gaze down, down, down to the lake’s emerald-blue surface, is to get the message – viscerally.
But it may come as a surprise that this is not a situation for which people in charge are unprepared. Colby Pellegrino, deputy general manager of resources for the Southern Nevada Water Authority, recalls a neighbor telling her that it feels like there’s no plan, and there needs to be one. “I said …. ‘There is a plan. The plan works. But the future is hotter and drier, and we know we have to do more.’ ”
For years the seven states, tribes, and
States working togetherHow Las Vegas conservesProgress in California, ArizonaEffects on farmersInvestments in MexicoThe “dead pool” scenario
