Deadpool: US mega drought spells trouble at Hoover Dam
Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • COVID-19
    • Bangladesh
    • Splash
    • Videos
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Infograph
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Thoughts
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Archive
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
    • Supplement
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Tuesday
August 16, 2022

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • COVID-19
    • Bangladesh
    • Splash
    • Videos
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Infograph
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Thoughts
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Archive
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
    • Supplement
  • বাংলা
TUESDAY, AUGUST 16, 2022
Deadpool: US mega drought spells trouble at Hoover Dam

USA

BSS/AFP
05 July, 2022, 12:50 pm
Last modified: 05 July, 2022, 01:41 pm

Related News

  • Drought in England, fires rage in France as heatwave persists
  • UK government officially declares drought in parts of England
  • Historic drought threatens to cripple european trade
  • Drought, flood, diesel and fertiliser: Are we heading towards food shortage?
  • Overuse and climate change kill off Iraq's Sawa Lake

Deadpool: US mega drought spells trouble at Hoover Dam

BSS/AFP
05 July, 2022, 12:50 pm
Last modified: 05 July, 2022, 01:41 pm
Photo: Collected
Photo: Collected

Millions of gallons of Colorado River water hurtle through the Hoover Dam every day, generating electricity for hundreds of thousands of homes.

But the mega-drought affecting the western United States is sending reservoir levels plummeting towards deadpool -- the point at which the dam can no longer produce power.

"We are 23rd year of drought here in the Colorado River Basin and Lake Mead has dropped down to 28 percent," explains Patti Aaron of the US Bureau of Reclamation, which operates the dam. She was referring to the vast lake created by the building of the dam.

"There isn't as much head so there isn't as much pressure pushing the water into the turbines, so there's less efficiency and we aren't able to produce as much power."

Hoover Dam was a feat of American hope and engineering.
Construction began in 1931 as the country was withering under the Great Depression.

Thousands of workers toiled 24 hours a day to build what was then the largest hydroelectricity facility in the world.

The dam stopped up the Colorado River, creating Lake Mead, the biggest reservoir in the United States.

At its height, the lake surface sits over 1,200 feet (365 meters) above sea level. But after more than two decades of drought it is now less than 1,050 feet -- the lowest since the lake was filled, and falling about a foot a week.

If it drops to 950 feet, the intakes for the dam will no longer be under water and the turbines will stop.

"We're working very hard for that not to happen," said Aaron. "It's just not an option to not produce power or not deliver water."

Melting Snowpack

The Colorado River rises in the Rocky Mountains and snakes its way through Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, California and northern Mexico, where it empties into the Gulf of California.

It is fed chiefly by the huge snowpack that gets dumped at high altitudes, melting slowly throughout the warmer months.

But reduced precipitation and the higher temperatures caused by humanity's unchecked burning of fossil fuels means less snow is falling, and what snow there is, is melting faster.

As a consequence, there is not as much in a river that supplies water to tens of millions of people and countless acres of farmland.

Boaters on Lake Mead, many of whom come from Las Vegas and its surrounding towns, say they are doing their part to protect supplies.

They point to the drought-tolerant landscapes they have installed instead of lawns, and the high percentage of indoor water that is recycled in desert towns.

"But you've got farmers in California growing almonds for export," said Kameron Wells, who lives in nearby Henderson, Nevada.

Householders in southern California have grumbled about the fate of their luscious lawns since being ordered to limit their outdoor watering to one or two days a week at the start of the summer.

But there, like in the desert periphery of Las Vegas, there is plenty of new construction, with huge houses being put up in the resort settlement of Lake Las Vegas.

And from the air, the vibrant green of dozens of golf courses mark an otherwise dust bowl landscape.

'Out of sight, out of mind'

Climatologist Steph McAfee of the University of Nevada, Reno, says the US west has always been something of an improbability.

"The average precipitation in Las Vegas is something like four inches (10 centimeters) a year," she told AFP.

"And to make it possible to have cities like Las Vegas and Phoenix and Los Angeles we rely on water that falls in the mountains as snow in parts of the West that are obviously much, much wetter."

The last two decades of drought are not, McAfee says, actually that unusual in climatic terms, according to tree ring reconstructions.

But "what's going on now is that we're having a drought, and temperatures are much warmer and when temperatures are high, things dry out faster.
"That is a consequence of climate change... driven by human greenhouse gas emissions."

On Lake Mead, boat seller Jason Davis manoeuvers his craft towards Hoover Dam, where thousands of tonnes of concrete loom over the water in graceful modernist lines, and a ring of mineral deposits shows where the water level used to be.

For him, the lake is not just a battery for the huge generators in the dam, but a waterscape whose beauty and peacefulness are worth protecting.
"You know, people who haven't been here don't appreciate it," he says as a sunset rages in the desert sky above.

"It's like, out of sight, out of mind. Hey, we're using too much water.

"Well, if you haven't seen these rings, you don't quite comprehend.

"Hopefully it's not too late."

World+Biz

Hoover Dam / Colorado River / drought

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • A diesel fuel tank at a supplier in the US.Photographer: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg
    A storm brews in heating oil
  • Rohingya repatriation to be under UN supervision: Michelle Bachelet
    Rohingya repatriation to be under UN supervision: Michelle Bachelet
  • Bilkis Bano, one of the survivors of the Gujarat riot victims.(AP Photo)
    Eleven convicts in Gujarat gang rape, murder cases freed in India

MOST VIEWED

  • Even today, it is not obvious how the Democrats could nominate someone stronger than Biden in 2024. PHOTO: Reuters
    White House pushes three-part plan for abortion rights
  • REUTERS/Jonathan Drake/
    Trump's revenge campaign takes aim at key Wyoming, Alaska Republicans
  • An unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile launches during an operational test at 2:10 am Pacific Daylight Time at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, US, August 2, 2017. US Air Force/Senior Airman Ian Dudley/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
    US carries out ICBM test delayed during Chinese show-of-force over Taiwan
  • The Wall Street sign is pictured at the New York Stock exchange (NYSE) in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, US, 9 March 2020. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri
    Wall Street revives Russian bond trading after US go-ahead
  • An officer from the Albuquerque Police Department wears a rose next to his gun magazines during a unity event against anti-Shia hate following the murders of four Muslim men in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S., August 12, 2022. REUTERS/Adria Malcolm
    Father and son linked to murders of Muslims in New Mexico
  • Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks to an audience at the "American Freedom Tour" event in Memphis, Tennessee, U.S., June 18, 2022. REUTERS/Karen Pulfer Focht
    CIA sued over alleged spying on lawyers, journalists who met Assange

Related News

  • Drought in England, fires rage in France as heatwave persists
  • UK government officially declares drought in parts of England
  • Historic drought threatens to cripple european trade
  • Drought, flood, diesel and fertiliser: Are we heading towards food shortage?
  • Overuse and climate change kill off Iraq's Sawa Lake

Features

Photo: Collected

Which Nintendo Switch should you switch to?

17m | Brands
Photo: Collected

Welcome to the age of glass facades

8h | Habitat
Photo: Mumit M/TBS

Why artificial oyster reefs are the answer to our coastal embankments problems

8h | Panorama
Illustration: TBS

Anwar Group: From comb maker to owner of 20 companies

10h | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

Whose negligence caused loss of life in under construction projects?

Whose negligence caused loss of life in under construction projects?

37m | Videos
Shakib Al Hasan wins despite 'losing'

Shakib Al Hasan wins despite 'losing'

1h | Videos
Is there a possibility to reduce the cost of living?

Is there a possibility to reduce the cost of living?

1h | Videos
Cumilla agro entrepreneur gains success in growing tea in Lalmai hills

Cumilla agro entrepreneur gains success in growing tea in Lalmai hills

4h | Videos

Most Read

1
Dollar crisis: BB orders removal of 6 banks’ treasury chiefs 
Banking

Dollar crisis: BB orders removal of 6 banks’ treasury chiefs 

2
From left Afzal Karim, Murshedul Kabir and Mohammad Jahangir
Banking

Sonali, Agrani and Rupali banks get new MDs

3
Photo: TBS
Bangladesh

5 crushed to death as BRT girder falls on car in Uttara

4
Dollar price drops by Tk8 in kerb market
Economy

Dollar price drops by Tk8 in kerb market

5
Representational Image. Photo: Collected
Bangladesh

Air passengers should plan extra commute time to airport: DMP

6
Photo: Collected
Transport

Will Tokyo’s traffic model solve Dhaka’s gridlocks?

EMAIL US
contact@tbsnews.net
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2022
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net