What lake supplies over 25 million gallons in the Southwest for power, agriculture, and households (Sierks et al., 2020)? Lake Mead! You earned a gold ribbon. Lake Mead reservoir accumulates in the Colorado Regional Groundwater Flow System, which includes Colorado, Nevada, and Arizona (Wilson, 2020).
Water bank storage at Lake Mead has declined from the 1960s to the early 2000s. Scientists can hypothesize the volume exchanges in Lake Mead, but they do not know the total volume since water can be trapped in sediment, termed bank storage. The bank volume is hard to predict as Lake Mead’s water levels are stressed by urban expansion in the region (Wilson, 2020, and the sediment continually is manipulated and reshaped.
Lake Mead provides water and a haven to the Southwest for bald eagles, sportfish, endangered fish, benthic invertebrates, aquatic birds, and much more. Humans recreate in the National area by boating, kayaking, hiking, exploring, and other activities. However, as the water levels drop dangerously low, animals and humans must adapt to the changes at Lake Mead. Upstream water levels impact the lake from New Mexico, Nevada, Lake Powell, Glen Canyon Dam, Grand Canyon, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah (Baldwin et al., 2021). As the drought moves along the Southwest, humans and animals witness the impact of the drought.
National Park Service (n.d.) warns visitors that a twenty-year drought has changed the topography of Lake Mead. Lake Mead is the largest reservoir in the United States that supplies water to seven states, and it is the lowest it has been since April 1937. The severe drought in nine Western States has caused Lake Mead's reserves to diminish.
Rosenberg (2022) urges us to live within our water means and conserve water to protect Lake Mead. As Lake Mead’s water is stored, traded, and used, will its levels continue to drop? What will that mean to the Southwest and the Nation? Is there more that can be done to regulate and protect this valuable water reserve? What will happen to the Southwest’s much-needed 25 million gallons of water?
References:
· Baldwin, A.K., Spanjer, A. R., Rosen, M. R., & Thom, T. (2020). Microplastics in Lake Mead National Recreation Area, USA: Occurrence and biological uptake. PloS One, 15(5), e0228896–e0228896. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0228896
· NASA. (2022). Lake Mead keeps dropping. Nasa Earth Observatory. Retrieved on December 12, 2022, from https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/150111/lake-mead-keeps-dropping
· National Park Service (n.d.). Lake Mead. Current conditions at Lake Mead & Lake Mohave. National Park Service. Retrieved on December 12, 2022, from https://www.nps.gov/lake/learn/news/lakeconditions.htm
· Rosenberg, D., (2022). Opinion: 3 ways we can adapt to low Colorado River flows in a drought. Deseret News. April 4 2022. https://www.deseret.com/opinion/2022/8/12/23298509/opinion-3-ways-we-can-adapt-to-low-colorado-river-flows-in-a-drought-lake-powell-mead-glen-canyon#:~:text=Combinations%20below%20the%20line%20in%20the%20blue%20fill,a%20weaker%20monsoon%20%28pink%20fill%20in%20Figure%201%29.
· Sierks, M.D., Kalansky, J., Cannon, F., & Ralph, F. M. (2020). Characteristics, origins, and impacts of summertime extreme precipitation in the Lake Mead Watershed. Journal of Climate, 33(7), 2663–2680. https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-19-0387.1
· Wilson, J.W. (2020). An Evaluation of bank storage at Lake Mead Reservoir in the Southwest United States. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.
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Are We Losing Our Greatest Water Reserve
by Stephanie Daich
