Human remains found as Lake Mead recedes.

[lucas80]

A barrel containing a body was found as Lake Mead shrinks to levels not seen since the Glen Canyon Dam was completed and the lake was filled. The body is believed to be that of a homicide victim from the 1980s. Authorities believe more bodies will be found.
Power generation at Glen Canyon and Hoover Dam is already being negatively affected, and will continue to shrink.
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/05/02/us/lake-mead-body-barrel-water-level-drought-climate/index.html

 

[hawkeyetraveler]

A lot of mob activity in Vegas…just saying…

 

[runkpanole]

At least the remains found last year in Tallahassee were from an ancient burial.

Skeletal Remains Found At Lake Jackson Believed To Be From Burial Mounds

Officials say the two human skulls found during the recent Lake Jackson dry-down are likely ancient remains.

news.wfsu.org

 

[HawkeyeGenius]

Police believe man found in barrel at Lake Mead died from gunshot wound

Las Vegas police provided more details Tuesday morning in the discovery of a body at Lake Mead National Recreational Area.

www.google.com

Retired Las Vegas police offer reward for bodies found at Lake Mead

Two retired police officers in Las Vegas are offering a reward for those who find bodies at Lake Mead after human remains were found in a barrel at the lake last weekend.

www.fox5vegas.com

 

[seminole97]

The top of the first water intake pipe at Lake Mead is now visible as the lake's plummeting water level hit a new record low.

"It's official – the top of Intake No. 1 is now visible and the low lake level pumping station is now operational," tweeted Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA).

After nearly half a century, the first intake is out of service and can no longer draw water. Water levels at the lake hit record lows this week, falling to 1,056 feet. Luckily, SNWA has two other intakes at much lower levels that are still operational.

In related news:

A California Coastal Commission staff report released on Monday urged the CCC panel to vote against approving the Poseidon Water desalination plant in Huntington Beach, potentially depriving Southern California of a major future source of freshwater.

The Poseidon Water project, which would convert seawater to drinkable water, was first proposed in the early 2000’s and has been the subject of seven lawsuits and dozens of local efforts to stop the plant since 2005. Major changes were made in subsequent years, including large ones recommended by the CCC in 2013. Following the opening of a Carlsbad desalinization plant in 2015, the project went into the final stages, with plant approval flip-flopping between being approved and not approved by various courts in the late 2010’s. Finally, in 2021, the California Third District Court of Appeals ruled that the desalinization plant could be constructed. However, a few final hurdles remained, including the crucial CCC vote. Originally scheduled for March, the meeting was pushed back by two months earlier this year.

Before the vote, CCC staff put together a report that was finally issued Monday. Siding with environmentalists against the plant, the CCC staff report said that the plant raised too many environmental issues, as well as environmental policies and potential natural disasters caused them to recommend not approving the plant.

“This project raises significant and complex coastal protection policy issues including conformity with policies that require protection of marine life, water quality, environmentally sensitive habitat areas, and policies meant to avoid or minimize hazards associated with sea level rise, floods, tsunamis, and geologic hazards,” the staff reported on Monday.

While the staff recommendations will not necessarily mean that the CCC will vote against the plant during the May 12th meeting, the CCC panel rarely goes against staff recommendations, meaning that the panel will likely vote to not approve the plant.

Environmentalists and those opposed to the plant praised the decision on Monday.

“It’s time for Poseidon Water to recognize the deep and irrevocable flaws with this project, cut its losses and publicly recognize this project and this site are not good for Huntington Beach or California – it’s time to shut it down for good,” said executive director of the California Coastal Protection Network Susan Jordan on Monday.

Meanwhile, Poseidon Energy, which has spent $100 million to date to get the Huntington Beach plant in place for the last 2 decades, said, “No water infrastructure project in the state of California has ever undergone this level of study and scrutiny. If this recommendation stands, it will effectively be the death knell for desalination in California.”

 

[HawkeyeGenius]

They found more.

More human remains found at Lake Mead one week after a body was found in a barrel

The National Park Service reported human skeletal remains discovered in Lake Mead National Recreational Area Saturday afternoon.

www.fox5vegas.com

 

[Hawki97]

A barrel containing a body was found as Lake Mead shrinks to levels not seen since the Glen Canyon Dam was completed and the lake was filled. The body is believed to be that of a homicide victim from the 1980s. Authorities believe more bodies will be found.
Power generation at Glen Canyon and Hoover Dam is already being negatively affected, and will continue to shrink.
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/05/02/us/lake-mead-body-barrel-water-level-drought-climate/index.html

 

[MitchLL]

Maybe Jimmy Hoffa shows up soon.

At least, kinda show up.

 

[Chuck C]

Water level seems to be dropping quick, only one boat ramp is still open. Dropped 4-5 feet in just the last 2 weeks.

 

[billanole]

It is time for the Western US to reframe water usage.

It's Time to Drain Lake Powell

The West is in severe drought. Which is exactly why now is the moment to bypass one of the region's biggest dams and rewild Glen Canyon.

gizmodo.com

The date is Feb. 9, 1997, and the man responsible for one of the most egregious environmental follies in human history is sitting at a restaurant in Boyce, Virginia, with the leader of the movement seeking to undo his mistake. Of the hundreds of dams Floyd Dominy green lit during his decade running the Bureau of Reclamation, none are as loathed as his crown jewel, the Glen Canyon Dam. In 1963, Dominy erected the 710-foot (216-meter) tall monument to himself out of ego and concrete, deadening the Colorado River just upstream of the Grand Canyon, drowning more than 250 square miles (648 square kilometers) in the heart of the Colorado Plateau, and inventing Lake Powell in the middle of a sun-baked desert.

After a couple of drinks, Dominy asked his dinner guest, Glen Canyon Institute founder Richard Ingebretsen, for an appraisal of the effort to drain Lake Powell. “It’s pretty serious, Mr. Dominy,” Ingebretsen recalled telling him, holding back the seething discontent of the broad coalition he represented. When Ingebretsen described his hypothetical plan to drill through the twin boreholes bestriding Glen Canyon dam, Dominy replied, “Well, you can’t do that. It is 300 feet of reinforced concrete.” Then Dominy did something extraordinary—he lowered his glasses, pulled out a pen, and diagrammed precisely how he would do it on a cocktail napkin. A stunned Ingebretsen could hardly believe what was happening.

 

[MitchLL]

It is time for the Western US to reframe water usage.

It's Time to Drain Lake Powell

The West is in severe drought. Which is exactly why now is the moment to bypass one of the region's biggest dams and rewild Glen Canyon.

gizmodo.com

The date is Feb. 9, 1997, and the man responsible for one of the most egregious environmental follies in human history is sitting at a restaurant in Boyce, Virginia, with the leader of the movement seeking to undo his mistake. Of the hundreds of dams Floyd Dominy green lit during his decade running the Bureau of Reclamation, none are as loathed as his crown jewel, the Glen Canyon Dam. In 1963, Dominy erected the 710-foot (216-meter) tall monument to himself out of ego and concrete, deadening the Colorado River just upstream of the Grand Canyon, drowning more than 250 square miles (648 square kilometers) in the heart of the Colorado Plateau, and inventing Lake Powell in the middle of a sun-baked desert.

After a couple of drinks, Dominy asked his dinner guest, Glen Canyon Institute founder Richard Ingebretsen, for an appraisal of the effort to drain Lake Powell. “It’s pretty serious, Mr. Dominy,” Ingebretsen recalled telling him, holding back the seething discontent of the broad coalition he represented. When Ingebretsen described his hypothetical plan to drill through the twin boreholes bestriding Glen Canyon dam, Dominy replied, “Well, you can’t do that. It is 300 feet of reinforced concrete.” Then Dominy did something extraordinary—he lowered his glasses, pulled out a pen, and diagrammed precisely how he would do it on a cocktail napkin. A stunned Ingebretsen could hardly believe what was happening.

They're already recycling urine.

What more can be done?

 

[billanole]

They're already recycling urine.

What more can be done?

Change usage patterns is a good start.
Charge industrial users market value for groundwater extraction.
If it becomes needed, restrict non-native landscape plantings.
I can’t see how desalination won’t have to happen somewhere in Southern California. Or Northern Mexico and pumped to Arizona, for instance.

Lake Powell needs to go… it is a reservoir for a reservoir and robs us of the wildest river canyon in North America.

Dominy’s dam, which the former House Interior Committee Chair Mo Udall as well as five-term Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater have called “the biggest mistake in their legislative careers,” killed what was the biological heart of the Colorado River. With more than 79 species of plants, 189 species of birds, and 34 species of mammals, it was an ecological marvel. The canyon was also home to a staggering array of Indigenous sites and artifacts dating back hundreds of years, all of them now underwater.

All that was traded away for the longest reservoir in the world, with approximately 2,000 miles of coastline. Unfurled, Lake Powell’s shoreline would stretch from Maine to Florida. Its primary function? To temporarily detain water for metered release to replenish Lake Mead. As Kolbert put it, Dominy built a reservoir for a reservoir.