Let me get this straight. Nevada doesn’t have enough water. This is why people flock there to build palacial abodes, hence altering the natural landscape and creating more environmental stress adjacent to a manmade reservoir. Got it. It is quite a view, though.
It’s just another example of deficit spending in the U.S. The 80-100 feet of water that’s missing from Lake Mead shows up nicely as that big white band all the way around. That’s something like 15 years of depletion (if I remember Nez correctly), but they won’t do a damn thing about it until it gets to Atlanta levels of criticality.
I’m with you 100%, though. It’s a desert, people. Quit living in it. It’s better to go to the water than bring it to you. I’m glad the Great Lakes Compact was enacted; when the people in the southwest live through Midwest winters they can have some of our water.
I recently read a geology.com article which postulated that Lake Mead will dry up by 2021. The Great Lakes Compact is good legislation; I don’t see why the Midwest has to give up its water for people wanting to live in gated skyscraper complexes in a desert.
While we’re on the topic of the big, white band, is it because they add the bleach directly to the reservoir? I’m only partially kidding; what in the water would leach/bleach out the color from welded volcanic tuffs? Otherwise, it’s a coat of some mineral in the water.