Worrying about water (and fighting over it, and creatively
diverting it) is a way of life in the arid American West.
However, according to reports out this week, the ever-precarious
water level is nearing a breaking point where the states of the
West might have to put emergency plans into place. Lake Mead,
the giant reservoir formed by the Hoover Dam near Las Vegas
Nevada, is fast approaching its all-time low level of 1,083 feet
set more than half a century ago. Should the level dip below
1,075, things will get serious. That will set in motion a
temporary distribution plan approved in 2007 by the seven states
with claims to the river and by the federal Bureau of
Reclamation, and water deliveries to Arizona and Nevada would be
reduced. This could mean more dry lawns, shorter showers and
fallow fields in those states, although conservation efforts
might help them adjust to the cutbacks. California, which has
first call on the Colorado River flows in the lower basin, would
not be affected. [The New York Times] T