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If there is any place in the US that needs water management, it's the SW. Farming in the desert just makes no sense. Evetually it will catch up with us....like right now for example. Let the non-desert areas of the country handle the agriculture so us desert dwellers do not have to be concerned about lack of water. Desert landscaping is beautiful. Upcoming generations will have to continue to re-adapt desert living w/o lawns. Golf courses are doing a better job today with minimal grass, so that's a big plus, and they use grey water only to keep grass alive. Good job!
I only had to watch this for thirty seconds to realize I needed more of this content in my life. I've got a homestead rather far away from Lake Mead, in Elko County, NV. But these atmospheric rivers buried it under three feet of snow yesterday, an absolute blessing considering I'm not there right now. But it's going to water the trees I planted, fill the creekbed I've been improving with better soil and local wildflowers, and maybe hopefully fill the pond I've been digging. This seems like just the channel to watch to know what's going on with the hydrology of the Southwest when I'm not there.
Outstanding, glad you enjoyed the video and thanks for stopping in to leave a comment!👍 Very cool with the homestead, you are living our dream! We are always looking for land to start an off-grid experiment. Nothing but space up in Elko! It's pretty remote in that part of the country. People don't understand rural Nevada until they see it. There are rumours that a modern day gold and lithium rush is starting in several places around Nevada and that area is one of them. I wouldn't be surprised if in the far-future another Reno type city popped up over on that side of the State. Good luck with the homestead and I'm sure it will have a a healthy supply of water into Spring. You should definitely document your progress on the land too!
Here in Palm Springs, most have adopted zeroscape into their yards using the local vegetation as a way of making things beautiful. A colorful pot here and there and local species of trees finish it off. Water use is minimal.
Biome-appropriate is the term you mean instead of dividing it into grass lawns versus corset plants. Those areas were grasslands before OVERGRAZING, plowing, fallow/bare ground practices, flooding, synthetic chemical inputs, monocultures, etc eroded away a lot of the carbon rich soil and killed off plant life. What really needs to be done is rainwater harvesting to soil. This includes diverting street water into bioswales and raingardens instead of letting it flow to storm drains. This increases the watertable in a constructive way, whole also rebuilding soil and plant biomes.
Excellent video. Note: Lake Powell is up 41 feet from a year ago (March 1st 2023 to March 1st 2024) - which is fantastic! I would speculate that releasing water into lake Mead is in some way in anticipation of the Epic snow fall we've had in the Rockies and now Sierra's.
That is excellent news and I hope it's what the USBR is anticipating! I realize I didn't compare the rise at Powell, but now that you pointed it out it has indeed gained more elevation than Mead so far. Just have to wait and see what comes down the pike now 👍
I lived in casa grande AZ for a time in 2009. Alot of people had grass lawns, but the ones the that looked really cool was the ones that planted desert wild plants .
Absolutely right. Evaporation from them causes more rainfall in the catchment. There is a need, I would have thought for something like a doubling of the storage with reservoirs higher up the Colorado and its' tributaries. Whilst the grass thing in Las Vegas may have been necessary as an emergency in the dire circumstances (because of a lack of additional storage upstream built years and years ago) of the crisis years, ripping up the grass provides some work for some contractors I suppose, but ultimately, reduces evaporation and therefore rainfall in the upper catchment. It is small beer and has helped in the crisis but long term additional storage a long time ago would have prevented the crisis in the first place. If upper reservoirs were to be used as just storage .... no electricity or only partial use of the water minimising cost .... the water in Lake Mead and Lake Powell could be kept at close to full making them far more attractive as recreational resources and water based businesses not forced into bankruptcy plus electricity production stablised. The level in the upper reservoirs would rise when precipitation is plentiful and fall in lean years. Of course, no attempt would be made to fill new reservoirs when rainfall is scarce but there have been times when vast amounts of water have been "wasted" via the overflow that could have been used to generate electricity if the water had been stored higher up. Ultimately, the USA MUST get its' population under control by stopping indiscriminate breeding. Two little horrors are enough for anyone .... surely. Children do not sow, neither do they reap. They merely consume ..... biscuits.
@@terryhoath1983Is there even enough water to fully fill l. Mead and l. Powell each year, or at least once every few years? If not, I do no think that additional storage would help that much.
@@MrToradragon There is a lesson from the book of Genesis about fat cows and thin cows. What did Joseph learn from this dream ? There were 30 years ... 1970s, 80s and 90s when they had more water than they knew what to do with and vast amounts of water flowed over the Hoover Dam overflow (the overflow is hidden away and rarely seen by visitors). Most of that water disappeared into the Sea and, in the current circumstances, must be seen as water wasted. Since then, there have been more than 20 years of below average precipitation in the catchment. There have been some good years but they have not been sufficient to make up for the deficit in previous years and both lakes Mead and Powell have been like a continuous "bear market" Despite some good days, the trend has been down and down with both lakes in danger of reaching dead pool .... no more electricity and drastic water restrictions especially on agriculture ... dead fruit and nut trees and no lettuce ! This year's precipitation has been exceptional and there may be several fat cows to come. I am sure that you have heard of the snowfall in California and Nevada in the last day or so adding to the total volume of water held in the lakes and the snow pack. More fat cows may not arrive. This year may be a flash in the pan but history suggests that once this has started there is fat cow after fat cow and the lakes fill and vast amounts of water will be lost down the Hoover overflow and out to sea. Sure as eggs is eggs, the thin cows will return and if Joseph's advice is not followed then famine will follow and everyone will ask, "Why didn't we save water when we could ? As I stated earlier, America must do something to stop its' population growth. Increasing population growth in the South-West will only make the water deficits worse. Obviously, if there is insufficient precipitation, and such as there is can be contained within the two big lakes, there is none for extra storage but what if the lakes fill and water starts plunging over the Hoover overflow in two or three years time. This is far more than can be used down stream and the excess ends up in the sea. Dirt cheap dams for just water storage can be created by blowing in the sides of gorges to create natural blockages. Even if these are only 50-100 feet high vast amounts of water could be stored. You dump smaller and smaller material on the back of the dam to reduce seepage to acceptable levels. If the fronts of these dams are kept porous the great chunks of blown-in rock will remain solid and stay in place. It is cheap and a number could be created over the next year. As I say, if there are only a few fat cows the extra storage won't be needed but what if there are a significant number of fat cows. Shame to miss the opportunity to feed the thin cows with spare hay in the barn at least to some extent in the thin years which WILL come. Shame to miss the opportunity to take out insurance BEFORE your house burns down, They won't insure you afterwards.
This is great. Thanks for the good news. After 20 years of drought there's a long way to go though. Flood baby flood. Time to clean up all our trash and plant as many trees as we can at least around the Las Vegas wetlands that are full of trash.
I was living in SoCal during the peak of the drought. Our neighbor swapped out his front lawn grass for a desert garden in an effort to conserve water. It looked good but the city didn’t like it and made him change back to grass. In SoCal, appearances are what really matters to local government.
Wow that's the first I've heard of something like that! Not surprised though. Policies seem to change every cycle of wet or dry years... it's like we have amnesia. Would not be surprised if in 5-10 years they figure out removing too much vegetation here has made it worse and start offering tree planting incentives or something similar.
Thanks for the excellent update, as I am not from your part of the country but am concerned about other areas of the country and try to be aware of even not so close to me areas! Can't wait until the next update ! And thanks again !
Great to hear! Appreciate you checking out the video and taking interest in it 👍 You are ahead of the curve then, as it will definitely affect everyone far and wide just looking at the food supply chain alone!
seems like in these areas where they need it for agriculture they need to create a bunch of terraced pools in the runoff channels that are deep enough to hold a fair amount of water each, the farmers could draw from for a while. I've seen this done in old river beds back several hundred years.
I'm talking about areas with controlled canals or dry areas with no beavers. But yes, Beavers do good work and before they were almost wiped out probably took care of the problem. @@Heterogeneity
Along the Colorado River water is strictly apportioned. What the recipients do with the water is their business. In practical terms, Lake Mead would be far more efficient at storing water than shallower ponds... less evaporation.
Thank you for stopping in from the UK to check out the video! 👍 We have a nice little group from across the pond here on the channel. I've heard there were some similar low water situations over the last few years there but not sure if it was as severe as the situation in the US southwest.
Planting almond trees in the desert or grass is not only foolish it is dumb, almond trees require vast quantities of water to produce the seeds as far as grass, a succulent or cactuses are a more natural choice don’t require as much water! Your draining your ground water supplies faster then they can replenish, think about it ? When it’s gone what’s left is the desert and no water for your life style.
Reclaim your weekend! 👍 It's easier to upkeep, uses less water, and in my opinion the native vegetation looks better than sprawling green lawns that die every summer. Glad to hear it worked out good for you!
Right on, thank you!👍 I realized pretty early on it's impossible to separate Mead's level from Powell's outflows. We would be missing a large part of the picture by just reporting whether Mead went up or down. Appreciate you watching and commenting!
Although this is great news in the long run so much of the capacity of the river is being used that droughts become disasters, and times of plenty don't fill the reservoirs back up. If we built the dam system today it would be different but that wouldn't change the facts, and the power we get from the dams is needed as much as the water. We need another source of water for this region of the country, we should start working on that.
Always go local plants and soils. I lived in So. Cal. For 50 years. All of it is arrid even LA. I never had grass. Especially in Hesperia. I got tired off expensive water problems. So now I live in central Oregan with a personal well, I can run my water 24-7 and never run out. With about a $20 a month cost. Loved the desert but lack of water won't sustain in a crisis. Hope your never thirsty my friends.
Spot on, sounds like a good choice! Historically there was a very healthy aquifer system in the Las Vegas valley and everyone originally had wells. So much water sometimes that they wouldn't even cap the wells, they'd just let it pour out into the open desert. Now we are realizing those mistakes and finally having to deal with them. I'm sure 100 years ago they thought the water would never be depleted. Why would all these people want to live in a desert anyways?🙃
Water rights in Arizona are very serious things. About 7 years ago neighbors stole my friend's water well in a small development north of Phoenix! He filed forged paperwork and let it just lie like that with the County until the presumptive challenge period (2 years IIRC) lapsed. Now it officially is in the neighbor's land.
Awesome, thank you! Just getting started with the new channel👍 I may have to take you up on that offer for a quick sail sometime- if it's still on the table and you can accommodate it 😎⛵
Agree! Drought is always worse than flood. You can always collect excess water during floods. You have NOTHING during drought. That is the problem here in the Southwest US. Thank you for watching and commenting 👍
I think the solution to this is simple. Raise the price of water as it’s volume falls. The problem is right now is that price controls keep people using water that is cheaper than it’s supply dictates.
Very well narrated and excellent graphics and maps. I read once most agriculture irrigation goes to alpha which goes to cattle. Israel irrigation methods make the best use of water use .
Thank you, appreciate the feedback!👍 Yes a lot of the water (majority) is going to farming, and much of it alfalfa... both in the Imperial Valley, CA and outside of Phoenix, AZ. Many still aren't even using drip irrigation.
Thanks Mojo. We enjoyed getting away from Ohio and visiting Las Vegas in January. However, we decided not to rent a car this year and therefor was not able to go to the dam and take the hike you recommended. We will keep that in mind for our next visit which I hope is again this year but may have to wait until next spring. The wife doesn't care for the cooler temps in January and wants to go in April or May, or at least during a warmer month. I somewhat agree, but mostly because it gives me a few extra months to save a little more money for the trip. We love it out there and like exploring the surrounding areas. Your updates are appreciated. Even though I do not live in Nevada or the SW, I am still a conservationist and like to see Lake Mead recovering. Cheers
Glad to hear you made it out! Such is Las Vegas. Hope the trip went well otherwise👍 I know there is so much to do it's hard sometimes just getting out of town. When my folks visit from Ohio we found we had to set aside whole days for hiking / ghost towning because it turns into "well we just got tickets to this show tomorrow / we want to eat at this restaurant tonight / we want to check out this new casino" etc. Before you know it you're on the flight home! 😂 April is a good month for a bit warmer temps, but by May sometimes it can start getting pretty toasty out there already- pushing 100's. Things have been so unpredictable lately who knows what next year might look like though!
@@mojo.adventures I agree, the best weather we have had while in Vegas was actually our first time in 2018. We were there during the NFL draft so sometime towards the end of April. Stayed in the Luxor. We also went to the dam that year and fell for the picture for $35, lol. I still have it on my office wall. Speaking of hotels on the strip, we have settled into Planet Hollywood. It is centrally located and pretty cheap comparably. You are exactly right .... want to eat here, have a show, go to Pawn Stars or Count Museum.... etc. etc., and before you realize what is going on it is Monday back at work. I love the west. Nevada, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico etc., but Vegas is a lot of fun and we try to go at least once a year. Fly in on Sunday and fly out Saturday. Seems to be the cheapest if you are going to stay that long. We like to hit the road and go places for a few days. Went to San Diego/ LA, the dam, Grand Canyon and so on. We try to find somewhere new each time. I really wanted to hit those trails you told me about, but that will be next time. Look forward to your next video and enjoy conversing with you.
It *could* help if there was more containment around the Sierra's and central California that would store the water for the dry months. Unfortunately, they have been doing emergency releases from some of the dams there to make room for this new snowmelt. So it will be a "wash" in the end (pun intended).
The problem with widespread zero-scaping is it will make the area even hotter over time. Grass is like a little forest, it cools and provides shade to the micro climates near the ground. Ever walked barefoot on grass? Compare that to rocks and dirt. That heat will radiate back to the atmosphere creating a heat island effect in the suburbs similar to that in cities.
They are starting to realize this and combat the urban heat island problem with ceremonial tree plantings. That is helping raise awareness of the issue, but residents are getting confused by the removal demands then the city re-planting new vegetation. The plan seems to be remove residential grass and create public green spaces like parks and reclamation areas in its place. They don't trust residents will properly irrigate or water grass according to their schedule, and because the grass needs spray nozzles it's inherently wasteful. You have a good analogy with walking barefoot though! Removing too much will definitely make the problem even worse at an increased pace.
I had to look up the historic levels after seeing your comment😎 In 1974 the lowest level was 1,169 ft asl. Today 1,076. So last time you saw the dam the water was right around 100 feet higher!!
To answer your question, I think the Hoover Dam should have been built taller. It could have been about 120’ taller which would have given the reservoir something like 4 times the capacity. But what really matters is starting to fund fresh water from other sources. NEOM solar domes and extracting fresh water from low ocean fog are surprisingly efficient and productive methods of collecting water. These would lessen demand on Lake Mead and Lake Powell. These technologies would solve our water crisis and allow the reservoirs to stay full. Another option is upgrading the dams to pumped hydro storage facilities. This would allow baseload power from renewable sources! The dams would become giant batteries and excess wind and solar would be used to pump water back up into the lakes helping keep them full.
Interesting points here, thank you for commenting!👍 I never considered Hoover Dam could have been constructed taller. In many ways it seems like the Glen Canyon Dam constructed later in the 60's was an afterthought that wasn't really needed. There really wasn't much justification for it other than to generate revenue for the USBR. Getting freshwater from other sources is the key to this problem like you mentioned. If California would pursue desal or any of alternatives you listed like solar domes or low ocean fog, the water crisis in the west would be solved. But since they have such a strong hold on the historic water rights, leadership and big agriculture there seems to have no interest in pursuing progress of any sort.
@@andrewday3206 disagree… Ukraine got enough of my tax money. I pay taxes I need this built. Ukraine can take care of itself. Ukraine does nothing for me and not my problem. We are paying for this in higher prices.
Sure can!👍 I left it out this update to cut down on time a bit, but will add it back soon when the snowmelt starts coming down. Glad you are enjoying the channel, thank you for watching and commenting!
I tend to agree, after the flooding in 1983 it's just been problem after problem. Only reliably in service about 20 years. Glen Canyon Dam kind of seems like an afterthought...
From what I understand so far, the super blooms usually occur the year after the healthy water year. So yes we should indeed see some of those good super blooms this spring from all the flooding and snow of Spring 2023. I'm sure the increased activity right now isn't going to hurt at all though! We've already seen some nice blooms starting outside Pahrump and next door outside the Oatman area👍 April/May before the heat hits seems to be the best time.
@@mojo.adventures hopefully there will be alot of nature lovers showing all the desert spring blooming, maybe some baby animal life , with all new abundance of life that comes from a watered desert 🏜
Thanks for another favorable update on the Lower CO Basin! Down here in the Southeast Valley near PHX, I'm all for ridding our region of those uber-thirsty Almond / Alfalfa farms. You're so right! They do not belong in a water-fragile area like Arizona!
Welcome back thanks for checking out another update!👍 It seems the governor there is serious about taking on the farms and wasteful water use. It will be interesting to see how it plays out. UAE has deep pockets and I expect them to pushback with any legal action they can. It could get messy, but we really need a thorough examination of how the resources are being used and where all the money has been going.
@@mojo.adventures - Yes! Very grateful Hobbs is our Gov. So far, she's been acting with a true moral compass. But taking on these Middle East owners will indeed be a battle royale.
So last winter, the sierra’s got a tremendous snow pack that became a real danger to life. Saw videos and pictures of roofs with 10 feet of snow on them. It was on the other side of the continental divide and most of that melt flowed west out into the Pacific. Gavin has stated he isn’t concerned with capturing more water, but to be rationing what they already have. You could have filled the reserves in Arizona and Nevada with that water. Yes, it needs a large input of Capital to get this capture, but is water important to all people. Looks like California has a shortage of something.
Gavin's ideation of the problem is a loser. He is into solutions that take taxpayer money and put it into the hands of those that come up with dubious/expensive solutions from high-tech, high expense grift operations. These in turn fund his (re)election campaigns. People should start looking unto harvesting rainwater to their own land to save on water bills, reduce fire danger, downstream flooding, lessen brownouts, etc. Also buying foods from those that use rainwater harvesting methods that *include avoiding* fallow/bare ground ag practices, monocultures, overgrazing, synthetic chemical inputs, CAFOs, biome inappropriate plants, etc. We as consumers can buy better. The best systems use polycultures of biome appropriate plants and use livestock to manage fertility, weeds, culls, crop residues, pests, etc while utilizing natural runoff collected to ponds, swales, bunds, etc.
that white dog in the backpack looks like the dog we had for almost 16 years. He was a mini-poodle / sheltie mix named Berni. He's been gone almost 4 years. Miss him a lot.
Sorry to hear about little Berni🐾 I bet he had quite a personality too. I know the sheltie mixes also and they are adorable. All the poodle mixes really. Bella here is a cockerpoo so she has a lot of poodle going on too👍
if you look at the lake mead database website you will see that "they" are drawing down lake Powell as well as not releasing water downstream. "they" are behind the mandatory releases by 18% in the water year which is 42% completed. Games are being played
Ah, I get it now!😂 Hard to tell sometimes, folks in the upper basin get angered by the amount of snow melt and river water wasted downstream. So would you like some 115 degree days in return?😉
@@mojo.adventures No. I like my Summers where 90 degree days are relatively rare. And I really did mean, thank you for taking the snow from us. (For the critics, Yes, I know weather doesn't work like that.)
Mead and Powell are fed by upstream snow pack. The Colorado river drainage is the main source for the water. Rainfall in southern Nevada basically has no impact on the lakes water.
Well said 👍 We are relying almost entirely on snowpack upstream. SNWA estimates that heavy rain periods in the Las Vegas valley usually only bring about *tenths of an inch* in elevation gain to Lake Mead at best.
A couple things. The decisions were already made, the dams are built. Removing them, I think, would be a bigger problem than they would solve by taking them down. Plus, those dams are infrastructure that can never be replaced. We may need them sometime. Second: My first 10 years of home ownership here in the Valley, I kept a small lawn. I'm originally from Iowa. That's what you're supposed to do. I don't remember what the LVVWD was paying in the 2000's, but I happily accepted, went with desert landscape and sold the stupid mower.
Good observations! I don't think complete removal would be a good idea either. According to Murphy's Law, I have a feeling we'd see record flooding again as soon as one of the major dams were removed. I think if any action was be taken at this point, it should only be to install a "bypass" at Glen Canyon because the high intakes have been a problem during dry years. I wouldn't be opposed to seeing Lake Powell drawn way down during drought years then, but you could say I'm bias being in Las Vegas. When I first moved here the grass removal credit was already in place, but it didn't seem like many folks were interested. As a midwest escapee myself I couldn't wait to ditch the grass and mower and reclaim my Sundays. Now I have a colorful rock garden full of locally collected minerals. Haven't looked back since!🤠
@@mojo.adventures well another thing that would help is if during rainy years they would stop running flood water out to sea and redirected it to lake mead but instead of doing that during flood years they run it out too sea what is the logic in that please correct me if i am wrong.
The more surface area of water increases the evaporation rate. Now is the time to build large underground storage like the Japanese are digging for a Hyper Neutrino collector.
YES, all the rain has filled all the reservoirs in California EXCEPT- Last week the water managers went up into the mountains to measure the snowpack as they do every Feb and found LITTLE snow. California needs lots of snow in the mountains to melt slowly & replenish the reservoirs little by little to keep those reservoirs full all summer long. !
Thanks for commenting, I hadn't heard of that yet. Definitely not great news, but lots of heavy snow activity starting today so let's hope there's time to turn those numbers around a bit!👍
If you want the snow pack to put more water down stream to fill reservoirs then you want it to melt fast and run off. If it melts slow like you said then more of the water goes into the ground and doesn't make it to the reservoirs. So on years with little snow pack it's better to get hot fast and run it off into the reservoirs quickly
Thanks for the great content. Here in Az. 90% of structures are xeriscaped. Very few lawns. Why TH does Lost Wages have to pay wealthy people to pull out lawns? The building codes dictate how high, how deep, how wide, grading, drainage, electrical, structural, etc, etc. but no codes requiring lo 7:24 w water landscaping? Weird. Is it a water problem or a usage problem, as on all the golf courses & massive use of water by the casinos. The legacy of Harry Reid lives on in the continuing water theft from the Hwy. 93 corridor, & the illegal processes used to get more water for the SNWA. SICKENING. The over developers have the govt & attorneys on their side. 98
Another nice video, thank you! Overcast skies allow enough ultraviolet through to overwhelm regular light with "color washout" that can be prevented by a UV filter.
Welcome back and thanks for the tip! Do you mean a lense filter for a camera? I'm a rookie when it comes to video/photography, just using an old GoPro I had lying around. Can't afford any professional creator gear as this is a just a hobby but definitely want to learn more about getting better shots.
There's enough idle ag land here in the well watered east that every acre of irrigated land you have could be left to dry up and no one would miss the output, except for desert specialty crops.
You have an interesting point there, thank you for commenting!👍 I think a lot of that has to do with the entire west being accustomed to hearing for decades and decades that California provides all our produce and we have to keep the industry there propped up no matter what. Even if there is rampant cronyism happening and they drain the resources in the process. In the modern day and age, almost anything can be grown indoors in industrial growhouses. There really is no reason to concentrate so much agriculture in California anymore if they can't get a handle on their resource issues. It almost seems like a national security issue to depend on one small region to provide so much. Our food chain in the west would be crippled without California right now. Of course, a lot of this is done intentionally to prop up their "5th largest economy" status, which, when you look, is gained through a lot of subsidization and cronyism...
Regulations are a huge hurdle to farming in Eastern states. Check out what Pennsylvania is doing to the Amish farmer, Amos Miller. Meanwhile, The EU is shutting down farming in Europe, and off shoring it to newly clear cut rainforest in South America. Growing watermelons in the desert is the least stupid thing people are doing.
It might be time to determine if they want people living in the desert or crop raised there. How many people can a desert region support? How many acres of crops to be shipped from the region. Many of the crops raised there are very high value crops, some can be substituted such as olives for olive oil, high oleic sunflowers has oil that is comparable to it in many ways.
Stationed at Nellis AFB from 1/77 to 12/80 and Lake Mead was always very full, a few times they had to blow off excess water. Of course there was only around 600k population then and yards really didn't have grass then and the only things on the strip with water features I remember was the small pond that was part of the Showboat casino and the fountains in front of Caesar's Palace.
I'll tell you many folks here recall that period you were here through the start of the 90's the glory days of the valley. I imagine the base was a lot smaller too. In my grumpy old opinion the city is too crowded now. Terrible traffic and drivers, no more small town neighbourly western feel. It's more like East L.A. these days. I was assigned to Nellis for quite a while and was surprised how much land was military controlled here between Nellis, Creech, and the entire test and training range. People don't realize how big these areas of desert are and that Las Vegas is just a tiny blip in the Mojave. Thank you for your service, and for watching and commenting!
@@mojo.adventuresI spent lots of time on the ranges including Groom Lake Base that people refer to as Area 51 (never saw anything but defense contractors btw) as I was a missile tech in Area 2 and we did a lot of recoveries and drove munitions up to Indian Springs before it was revamped into Creech AFB. Better part of the center of NV is military ranges and I spent a lot of time in various parts of it.
@@robertsmith7849Good possibility. I worked mostly out of the missile shop in Area 2 but did worked munitions delivery, trailer maint in Area 2, ammo shop and bomb shop both in area 2 and a couple months in jet engine support equipment. My assigned squadron was the 57th MMS which became the 57th EMS when the POMO change came about. Lots of trips on the ranges as well in my 4 yrs there.
Great episode. Get rid of the alfalfa and walnut trees in the desert! So obvious but giant agriculture firms have too much political power to stop them.
You nailed it... money, power, and influence. This problem could have been solved already. The government was originally giving that water to the Imperial Valley farmers for FREE trying to get agriculture booming in that area. We are simply seeing the end result of their resource planning.
When will we learn to just pay attention to Mother Nature who has successfully sustained these environments for millions of years. Green lawns have no place in the desert. Those who figure this out are learning how to create incredibly beautiful yards with native plants. Like Mother Nature does. Reduce water demand in a desert that does not sustain the demand? Duh!
I agree with you completely , but you got to know their are more people using the water ! Look at the story above , " The 3rd Straw " , this should make you real mad !!!
Not only lawns, but a desert environment cannot, in any reasonable way, support the number of people who now live there. Places like Phoenix, Las Vegas and many other parts of the desert southwest in Arizona, Nevada and California have swelled to unsustainable levels. Add to that the amount of agriculture that is dependent upon unnatural irrigation, it is bound to collapse at some point. Deserts are part of the natural environment, just as temperate zones and tropical zones. We can tweak things a little, but we have stressed the systems to beyond their capacity. Those reservoirs were never designed to handle the current demands, due to the increase of population in the region. In the big picture, you cannot engineer around nature.
Demand reduction with changes in crops and drip irrigation are the best way. Forward. The world changes and we need to adapt to it. Humans are apart of nature. We should seek to optimize the world for life. This will be a dynamic process.
In my opinion we should abandon the Water Compact of 1922. That was over 100 years ago and doesn't reflect the population deistribution of today. In 1922, Las Vegas had 2302 people. That is why Nevada's share of the Colorado river is a tiny 2%. The water should be redistributed today based on population of the various states. Since Nevada's population is now a lot larger than it was in 1922 we should increase Nevada's allocation to 5% to 8% of the river.
My opinion is that Powell should have a tunnel dug that could completely drain it in a sever drought so that there's less total surface area for evaporation but keep the dam for future wet years. The only sure thing is that the long term future will have both drought & wet years & it's best to be prepared to handle both .
Lake Powell has 1960 miles of shoreline with enormous amounts of riparian plant and animal life. Draining it would be a monumental environmental catastrophe, but the Sierra Club has been trying to do just that for decades. Politics is an ugly thing. Of course, any such actions would have to be written into the 2027+ update to the Upper Colorado River Compact. All that water belongs to _somebody_ in a total of seven states and is vital to small and large communities; part of it belongs to Mexico. It is not ours to steal.
@@flagmichael I never considered how all this affects Mexico. I would be curious what agreements the U.S. and Mexico have for releasing water to help maintain appropriate levels in Mexico.
It's hard to tell, I'd hope the USBR would have different operating plans where they drew Hoover down more before hand. Maybe Hoover's spillways would have sustained as much damage as Glen Canyon's did instead. Good thing it was in place because things were at critical point that year!
Not as much as we'd expect, because California has already had to draw down their reservoirs and release water to sea to make more capacity. It would really help if there was more storage around central CA where the snowpack could be stored for the hotter months.
It appears the reservoirs above Powell held back a lot of last years melt because they were so low. Isn't there a risk of the rez's above Powell like Flaming Gorge, Strawberry and McPhee extremely overflowing during this years melt?
In my own view I don't think there is any risk at all in near future because Powell is so low still. Both reservoirs are in the 30% full range so there is loads of storage capacity downstream. Last year we saw the "high flow release" from Powell also which could be repeated if any hint of a surge looks like it's coming down the river. From what I've seen, the overflowing issue really only happens in California, where there isn't enough storage. Once a system moves in, they have to release water to sea in order to create room. It would be a miracle if Hoover Dam had to do emergency releases again, but I'd love to see it!
Oh boy that will be all of ten inches of water coming from the mountains. Seeing as how Lake Mead is 100’ down from normal pool 10” of water ain’t gonna do much!
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If there is any place in the US that needs water management, it's the SW. Farming in the desert just makes no sense. Evetually it will catch up with us....like right now for example. Let the non-desert areas of the country handle the agriculture so us desert dwellers do not have to be concerned about lack of water. Desert landscaping is beautiful. Upcoming generations will have to continue to re-adapt desert living w/o lawns. Golf courses are doing a better job today with minimal grass, so that's a big plus, and they use grey water only to keep grass alive. Good job!
I only had to watch this for thirty seconds to realize I needed more of this content in my life.
I've got a homestead rather far away from Lake Mead, in Elko County, NV. But these atmospheric rivers buried it under three feet of snow yesterday, an absolute blessing considering I'm not there right now. But it's going to water the trees I planted, fill the creekbed I've been improving with better soil and local wildflowers, and maybe hopefully fill the pond I've been digging.
This seems like just the channel to watch to know what's going on with the hydrology of the Southwest when I'm not there.
Outstanding, glad you enjoyed the video and thanks for stopping in to leave a comment!👍 Very cool with the homestead, you are living our dream! We are always looking for land to start an off-grid experiment. Nothing but space up in Elko! It's pretty remote in that part of the country. People don't understand rural Nevada until they see it. There are rumours that a modern day gold and lithium rush is starting in several places around Nevada and that area is one of them. I wouldn't be surprised if in the far-future another Reno type city popped up over on that side of the State. Good luck with the homestead and I'm sure it will have a a healthy supply of water into Spring. You should definitely document your progress on the land too!
Yes it is!
Grass lawns seem out of place while the desert gardens are beautiful and fit in very well with the setting. I think it is a win-win.
Here in Palm Springs, most have adopted zeroscape into their yards using the local vegetation as a way of making things beautiful. A colorful pot here and there and local species of trees finish it off. Water use is minimal.
Biome-appropriate is the term you mean instead of dividing it into grass lawns versus corset plants.
Those areas were grasslands before OVERGRAZING, plowing, fallow/bare ground practices, flooding, synthetic chemical inputs, monocultures, etc eroded away a lot of the carbon rich soil and killed off plant life.
What really needs to be done is rainwater harvesting to soil. This includes diverting street water into bioswales and raingardens instead of letting it flow to storm drains.
This increases the watertable in a constructive way, whole also rebuilding soil and plant biomes.
@@cgage_01
Xeriscaping is the spelling you mean...
This problem is so so much bigger than the lawn issue. But the media has to say something that won't worry people too much.
Water enables life. Rain is NOT gloomy. It is beautiful, calming and wonderful.
Water is life!
I love rainy days. I'm in South Florida. MUCH rain every Summer.
Not if you live in England 😁😁😁😁
Liquid sunshine
And it sounds great on my roof. I sleep like a baby when it rains...
Excellent video. Note: Lake Powell is up 41 feet from a year ago (March 1st 2023 to March 1st 2024) - which is fantastic! I would speculate that releasing water into lake Mead is in some way in anticipation of the Epic snow fall we've had in the Rockies and now Sierra's.
That is excellent news and I hope it's what the USBR is anticipating! I realize I didn't compare the rise at Powell, but now that you pointed it out it has indeed gained more elevation than Mead so far. Just have to wait and see what comes down the pike now 👍
If I understand correctly, it is just following the rules of the Upper Colorado River Compact.
I lived in casa grande AZ for a time in 2009. Alot of people had grass lawns, but the ones the that looked really cool was the ones that planted desert wild plants .
I really like the xeriscaping too! When it's done right looks much better than out of place grass lawns in my opinion. Love the desert flora!
If you live in Arizona, Nevada and Southern California, you should never complain about the rain when it comes.
Both lakes have done what they was built for and are needed
Absolutely right. Evaporation from them causes more rainfall in the catchment. There is a need, I would have thought for something like a doubling of the storage with reservoirs higher up the Colorado and its' tributaries. Whilst the grass thing in Las Vegas may have been necessary as an emergency in the dire circumstances (because of a lack of additional storage upstream built years and years ago) of the crisis years, ripping up the grass provides some work for some contractors I suppose, but ultimately, reduces evaporation and therefore rainfall in the upper catchment. It is small beer and has helped in the crisis but long term additional storage a long time ago would have prevented the crisis in the first place.
If upper reservoirs were to be used as just storage .... no electricity or only partial use of the water minimising cost .... the water in Lake Mead and Lake Powell could be kept at close to full making them far more attractive as recreational resources and water based businesses not forced into bankruptcy plus electricity production stablised. The level in the upper reservoirs would rise when precipitation is plentiful and fall in lean years. Of course, no attempt would be made to fill new reservoirs when rainfall is scarce but there have been times when vast amounts of water have been "wasted" via the overflow that could have been used to generate electricity if the water had been stored higher up.
Ultimately, the USA MUST get its' population under control by stopping indiscriminate breeding. Two little horrors are enough for anyone .... surely. Children do not sow, neither do they reap. They merely consume ..... biscuits.
Both lakes have done what they WERE built for...
@@terryhoath1983Is there even enough water to fully fill l. Mead and l. Powell each year, or at least once every few years? If not, I do no think that additional storage would help that much.
@@MrToradragonThat person said a lot of blah blah blah which meant nothing. Just trying to sound educated.
@@MrToradragon There is a lesson from the book of Genesis about fat cows and thin cows. What did Joseph learn from this dream ? There were 30 years ... 1970s, 80s and 90s when they had more water than they knew what to do with and vast amounts of water flowed over the Hoover Dam overflow (the overflow is hidden away and rarely seen by visitors). Most of that water disappeared into the Sea and, in the current circumstances, must be seen as water wasted. Since then, there have been more than 20 years of below average precipitation in the catchment. There have been some good years but they have not been sufficient to make up for the deficit in previous years and both lakes Mead and Powell have been like a continuous "bear market" Despite some good days, the trend has been down and down with both lakes in danger of reaching dead pool .... no more electricity and drastic water restrictions especially on agriculture ... dead fruit and nut trees and no lettuce !
This year's precipitation has been exceptional and there may be several fat cows to come. I am sure that you have heard of the snowfall in California and Nevada in the last day or so adding to the total volume of water held in the lakes and the snow pack.
More fat cows may not arrive. This year may be a flash in the pan but history suggests that once this has started there is fat cow after fat cow and the lakes fill and vast amounts of water will be lost down the Hoover overflow and out to sea. Sure as eggs is eggs, the thin cows will return and if Joseph's advice is not followed then famine will follow and everyone will ask, "Why didn't we save water when we could ? As I stated earlier, America must do something to stop its' population growth. Increasing population growth in the South-West will only make the water deficits worse.
Obviously, if there is insufficient precipitation, and such as there is can be contained within the two big lakes, there is none for extra storage but what if the lakes fill and water starts plunging over the Hoover overflow in two or three years time. This is far more than can be used down stream and the excess ends up in the sea. Dirt cheap dams for just water storage can be created by blowing in the sides of gorges to create natural blockages. Even if these are only 50-100 feet high vast amounts of water could be stored. You dump smaller and smaller material on the back of the dam to reduce seepage to acceptable levels. If the fronts of these dams are kept porous the great chunks of blown-in rock will remain solid and stay in place. It is cheap and a number could be created over the next year.
As I say, if there are only a few fat cows the extra storage won't be needed but what if there are a significant number of fat cows. Shame to miss the opportunity to feed the thin cows with spare hay in the barn at least to some extent in the thin years which WILL come. Shame to miss the opportunity to take out insurance BEFORE your house burns down, They won't insure you afterwards.
I try to support small creators. I understand the time that it takes to make things like this.
Really appreciate that, glad you get it! I do dread all the editing and screen time... much rather be outdoors 🤠
@@KreemieNewgatt Beneath the video, to the right, 3 dots. There is a 'thanks' button. starts at 2 bucks and goes up. uses google pay.
Very interesting thank you. Still scary it’s only 37% full, or 63 % empty 😩😩.
Thanks!
Thank you for the support! Pinned you in the first comment until next update👍
Thanks for the update!!
Having dams in steps allows flexibility. Water can be held higher in the river system, and released as needed to those below like they are doing now.
Really interesting! Used to spend a lot of time at Lake Powell and a few years on Lake Mead.
RAIN DANCE FOR THE COLORADO RIVER ⛈️ 🌧 ❄️💃🕺⛈️🌧❄️ KOKOPELLI
Decommissioning a dam if concerned about water storage, is like putting smaller gas tank in the car to increase your MPG.
Brilliantly stated.
This is great. Thanks for the good news. After 20 years of drought there's a long way to go though. Flood baby flood. Time to clean up all our trash and plant as many trees as we can at least around the Las Vegas wetlands that are full of trash.
I'm glad that you are getting the precipitation you need. Things are still pretty dry here in Alberta.
Great news! Thank God for atmospheric rivers!
Pleased for all the locals, remember seeing it summer 2022. Where I live (Cornwall UK) we've had double rainfall compared to last year for Feb.
After all the droughts those states have suffered, it is a blessing, but it doesn't mean people can waste water again.
That was why Lake Powell was made to begin with, to supply extra water to Mead. It's not intended to be full during drought.
I was living in SoCal during the peak of the drought. Our neighbor swapped out his front lawn grass for a desert garden in an effort to conserve water. It looked good but the city didn’t like it and made him change back to grass. In SoCal, appearances are what really matters to local government.
Wow that's the first I've heard of something like that! Not surprised though. Policies seem to change every cycle of wet or dry years... it's like we have amnesia. Would not be surprised if in 5-10 years they figure out removing too much vegetation here has made it worse and start offering tree planting incentives or something similar.
Must of been an HOA.. Which should be Illegal.
Love our dessert showers. So helpful to our environment. 😊
"desert"
@@Summerslake I love DESERT SHOWERS but I also love DESSERT SHOWERS (usually consumed as a treat after I take a shower!)
very nice video, thank you !
Thanks for the excellent update, as I am not from your part of the country but am concerned about other areas of the country and try to be aware of even not so close to me areas! Can't wait until the next update ! And thanks again !
Great to hear! Appreciate you checking out the video and taking interest in it 👍 You are ahead of the curve then, as it will definitely affect everyone far and wide just looking at the food supply chain alone!
Awesome drone footage.
seems like in these areas where they need it for agriculture they need to create a bunch of terraced pools in the runoff channels that are deep enough to hold a fair amount of water each, the farmers could draw from for a while. I've seen this done in old river beds back several hundred years.
Beavers do this automatically for free. They're native to all of North America too, so restoration funds are available in places they've been removed.
I'm talking about areas with controlled canals or dry areas with no beavers. But yes, Beavers do good work and before they were almost wiped out probably took care of the problem. @@Heterogeneity
Along the Colorado River water is strictly apportioned. What the recipients do with the water is their business. In practical terms, Lake Mead would be far more efficient at storing water than shallower ponds... less evaporation.
If you live in Arizona then you love the rain
What a lovely & informative video! Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it👍 Thank you for watching and stopping by to leave a comment!
I even enjoyed this watching from the UK
Thank you for stopping in from the UK to check out the video! 👍 We have a nice little group from across the pond here on the channel. I've heard there were some similar low water situations over the last few years there but not sure if it was as severe as the situation in the US southwest.
Thxs for video.... cool backpack.
Thanks for watching! She loves riding along in that pack more than walking now😂
Planting almond trees in the desert or grass is not only foolish it is dumb, almond trees require vast quantities of water to produce the seeds as far as grass, a succulent or cactuses are a more natural choice don’t require as much water! Your draining your ground water supplies faster then they can replenish, think about it ? When it’s gone what’s left is the desert and no water for your life style.
They are releasing water from Powell to mead to ensure both are balanced after the snow pack run off.
First timer. This is great stuff, my Dude.
Welcome aboard! Thanks for checking it out 👍
Replaced my lawn area and plants relying on drip system. No more mowing and no more trimming bushes in 110 degrees, Greetings from Phoenix, Az
Reclaim your weekend! 👍 It's easier to upkeep, uses less water, and in my opinion the native vegetation looks better than sprawling green lawns that die every summer. Glad to hear it worked out good for you!
I glad you mention about lake Powell. I don’t hear that on any other channel. Great job 🎉
Right on, thank you!👍 I realized pretty early on it's impossible to separate Mead's level from Powell's outflows. We would be missing a large part of the picture by just reporting whether Mead went up or down. Appreciate you watching and commenting!
This is an excellent update on western US water levels; honest and not based on agenda or climate change.
The smell of fresh rain pouring down on our desert is an aroma I live for! ❤
Although this is great news in the long run so much of the capacity of the river is being used that droughts become disasters, and times of plenty don't fill the reservoirs back up. If we built the dam system today it would be different but that wouldn't change the facts, and the power we get from the dams is needed as much as the water. We need another source of water for this region of the country, we should start working on that.
Always go local plants and soils. I lived in So. Cal. For 50 years. All of it is arrid even LA.
I never had grass.
Especially in Hesperia.
I got tired off expensive water problems. So now I live in central Oregan with a personal well, I can run my water 24-7 and never run out. With about a $20 a month cost.
Loved the desert but lack of water won't sustain in a crisis.
Hope your never thirsty my friends.
Spot on, sounds like a good choice! Historically there was a very healthy aquifer system in the Las Vegas valley and everyone originally had wells. So much water sometimes that they wouldn't even cap the wells, they'd just let it pour out into the open desert. Now we are realizing those mistakes and finally having to deal with them. I'm sure 100 years ago they thought the water would never be depleted. Why would all these people want to live in a desert anyways?🙃
Water rights in Arizona are very serious things. About 7 years ago neighbors stole my friend's water well in a small development north of Phoenix! He filed forged paperwork and let it just lie like that with the County until the presumptive challenge period (2 years IIRC) lapsed. Now it officially is in the neighbor's land.
Hespiera is nice.
Did I hear correctly, water in Oregon is now the state's and they can tax or regulated small farmers out of business?
Atmospheric river is the cousin of the terrestrial gail. Check lake mead when donner pass melts.
Hi guys, looks like I missed another video. 😮
Another good one! Can't wait to checkout you "more" channel
Awesome, thank you! Just getting started with the new channel👍 I may have to take you up on that offer for a quick sail sometime- if it's still on the table and you can accommodate it 😎⛵
Loved it!.........been tempted to make a drive out to San Diego to check out the floods and the aftermath....but that drive though
Haha yep say no more! You might get stuck there with all the storms still on the way... I think there might be more "aftermath" to come 👍
Living in a water scarce country myself, rainy weather is never gloomy. A drought is always worse than s flood.
Agree! Drought is always worse than flood. You can always collect excess water during floods. You have NOTHING during drought. That is the problem here in the Southwest US. Thank you for watching and commenting 👍
I think the solution to this is simple. Raise the price of water as it’s volume falls. The problem is right now is that price controls keep people using water that is cheaper than it’s supply dictates.
I like how you properly pronounced Hawai'i.
Ninth Islander here 🤙
Very well narrated and excellent graphics and maps. I read once most agriculture irrigation goes to alpha which goes to cattle. Israel irrigation methods make the best use of water use .
Thank you, appreciate the feedback!👍 Yes a lot of the water (majority) is going to farming, and much of it alfalfa... both in the Imperial Valley, CA and outside of Phoenix, AZ. Many still aren't even using drip irrigation.
Super cool video
Thank you , very interesting video !
Thank you for watching👍
Thanks Mojo. We enjoyed getting away from Ohio and visiting Las Vegas in January. However, we decided not to rent a car this year and therefor was not able to go to the dam and take the hike you recommended. We will keep that in mind for our next visit which I hope is again this year but may have to wait until next spring. The wife doesn't care for the cooler temps in January and wants to go in April or May, or at least during a warmer month. I somewhat agree, but mostly because it gives me a few extra months to save a little more money for the trip. We love it out there and like exploring the surrounding areas. Your updates are appreciated. Even though I do not live in Nevada or the SW, I am still a conservationist and like to see Lake Mead recovering. Cheers
Glad to hear you made it out! Such is Las Vegas. Hope the trip went well otherwise👍 I know there is so much to do it's hard sometimes just getting out of town. When my folks visit from Ohio we found we had to set aside whole days for hiking / ghost towning because it turns into "well we just got tickets to this show tomorrow / we want to eat at this restaurant tonight / we want to check out this new casino" etc. Before you know it you're on the flight home! 😂
April is a good month for a bit warmer temps, but by May sometimes it can start getting pretty toasty out there already- pushing 100's. Things have been so unpredictable lately who knows what next year might look like though!
@@mojo.adventures I agree, the best weather we have had while in Vegas was actually our first time in 2018. We were there during the NFL draft so sometime towards the end of April. Stayed in the Luxor. We also went to the dam that year and fell for the picture for $35, lol. I still have it on my office wall. Speaking of hotels on the strip, we have settled into Planet Hollywood. It is centrally located and pretty cheap comparably.
You are exactly right .... want to eat here, have a show, go to Pawn Stars or Count Museum.... etc. etc., and before you realize what is going on it is Monday back at work.
I love the west. Nevada, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico etc., but Vegas is a lot of fun and we try to go at least once a year. Fly in on Sunday and fly out Saturday. Seems to be the cheapest if you are going to stay that long. We like to hit the road and go places for a few days. Went to San Diego/ LA, the dam, Grand Canyon and so on. We try to find somewhere new each time. I really wanted to hit those trails you told me about, but that will be next time. Look forward to your next video and enjoy conversing with you.
The ten feet of snow in California mountains this weekend will have more help filling those reserves when it begins to melt.
That snow melt does make it to those reservoirs.
Gods great watercolor in the sky .thanks Jesus
Lovely weather for ducks.
They are so happy down there in the rain, it's like an outdoor medley🦆
What about the huge snoooow impact this past weekend in northern california, which probaby moved east really well...that help?
It *could* help if there was more containment around the Sierra's and central California that would store the water for the dry months. Unfortunately, they have been doing emergency releases from some of the dams there to make room for this new snowmelt. So it will be a "wash" in the end (pun intended).
The problem with widespread zero-scaping is it will make the area even hotter over time. Grass is like a little forest, it cools and provides shade to the micro climates near the ground. Ever walked barefoot on grass? Compare that to rocks and dirt. That heat will radiate back to the atmosphere creating a heat island effect in the suburbs similar to that in cities.
They are starting to realize this and combat the urban heat island problem with ceremonial tree plantings. That is helping raise awareness of the issue, but residents are getting confused by the removal demands then the city re-planting new vegetation. The plan seems to be remove residential grass and create public green spaces like parks and reclamation areas in its place. They don't trust residents will properly irrigate or water grass according to their schedule, and because the grass needs spray nozzles it's inherently wasteful. You have a good analogy with walking barefoot though! Removing too much will definitely make the problem even worse at an increased pace.
The rain that we got earlier this year contributed only 9.30am only 1 inch from the storms.
I visited Hoover Dam way back in 1974😊
I had to look up the historic levels after seeing your comment😎 In 1974 the lowest level was 1,169 ft asl. Today 1,076. So last time you saw the dam the water was right around 100 feet higher!!
To answer your question, I think the Hoover Dam should have been built taller. It could have been about 120’ taller which would have given the reservoir something like 4 times the capacity. But what really matters is starting to fund fresh water from other sources. NEOM solar domes and extracting fresh water from low ocean fog are surprisingly efficient and productive methods of collecting water. These would lessen demand on Lake Mead and Lake Powell. These technologies would solve our water crisis and allow the reservoirs to stay full. Another option is upgrading the dams to pumped hydro storage facilities. This would allow baseload power from renewable sources! The dams would become giant batteries and excess wind and solar would be used to pump water back up into the lakes helping keep them full.
Need to canal ocean water to lake mead to a desalination plant running 24/7.
Instead of sending money to Ukraine.
Problem solve
Interesting points here, thank you for commenting!👍 I never considered Hoover Dam could have been constructed taller. In many ways it seems like the Glen Canyon Dam constructed later in the 60's was an afterthought that wasn't really needed. There really wasn't much justification for it other than to generate revenue for the USBR. Getting freshwater from other sources is the key to this problem like you mentioned. If California would pursue desal or any of alternatives you listed like solar domes or low ocean fog, the water crisis in the west would be solved. But since they have such a strong hold on the historic water rights, leadership and big agriculture there seems to have no interest in pursuing progress of any sort.
@@chipcook6646
Ukraine does not stop America progressing. We still have to be the leader in the world and isolationism does not put the USA on top.
@@andrewday3206 disagree… Ukraine got enough of my tax money. I pay taxes I need this built. Ukraine can take care of itself. Ukraine does nothing for me and not my problem. We are paying for this in higher prices.
Harvesting the water as Brand Lancaster is doing should be the way to go, avoiding the water to wash away and helping replenishing the gound water
: And the beat goes on :
🐢 😲 🐢 🌧 🐢 👍
Any chance you could document all tge inflows to lake Meade love your channel
Sure can!👍 I left it out this update to cut down on time a bit, but will add it back soon when the snowmelt starts coming down. Glad you are enjoying the channel, thank you for watching and commenting!
Lake Mead never had a problem befor the other dam was built!
I tend to agree, after the flooding in 1983 it's just been problem after problem. Only reliably in service about 20 years. Glen Canyon Dam kind of seems like an afterthought...
With all this rain in the desert 🏜, any desert blooming going on ? Or when can we expect desert bloom ?
From what I understand so far, the super blooms usually occur the year after the healthy water year. So yes we should indeed see some of those good super blooms this spring from all the flooding and snow of Spring 2023. I'm sure the increased activity right now isn't going to hurt at all though! We've already seen some nice blooms starting outside Pahrump and next door outside the Oatman area👍 April/May before the heat hits seems to be the best time.
@@mojo.adventures hopefully there will be alot of nature lovers showing all the desert spring blooming, maybe some baby animal life , with all new abundance of life that comes from a watered desert 🏜
I live in Indiana, and i still find this interesting.
Thanks for stopping by the channel👍 Ohio native here but escaped a long time ago... hope you get to visit the lake sometime!
Thanks for another favorable update on the Lower CO Basin!
Down here in the Southeast Valley near PHX, I'm all for ridding our region of those uber-thirsty Almond / Alfalfa farms. You're so right! They do not belong in a water-fragile area like Arizona!
Welcome back thanks for checking out another update!👍 It seems the governor there is serious about taking on the farms and wasteful water use. It will be interesting to see how it plays out. UAE has deep pockets and I expect them to pushback with any legal action they can. It could get messy, but we really need a thorough examination of how the resources are being used and where all the money has been going.
@@mojo.adventures - Yes! Very grateful Hobbs is our Gov. So far, she's been acting with a true moral compass. But taking on these Middle East owners will indeed be a battle royale.
I appreciate you calling Hawaii by the correct name. Thank you.
If not mistaken there is work still being done to Lake Powell Dam, which would be the reason for the low levels by letting water flow to Lake Mead.
I will have to look into this, thank you for commenting! 👍
❤get Lake med Full and the you can ge6 Lake Powell Full it's a no brainier. The drought will come again
So last winter, the sierra’s got a tremendous snow pack that became a real danger to life. Saw videos and pictures of roofs with 10 feet of snow on them. It was on the other side of the continental divide and most of that melt flowed west out into the Pacific. Gavin has stated he isn’t concerned with capturing more water, but to be rationing what they already have. You could have filled the reserves in Arizona and Nevada with that water. Yes, it needs a large input of Capital to get this capture, but is water important to all people. Looks like California has a shortage of something.
Newsome's not concerned with making things better... only worse.
Gavin's ideation of the problem is a loser. He is into solutions that take taxpayer money and put it into the hands of those that come up with dubious/expensive solutions from high-tech, high expense grift operations. These in turn fund his (re)election campaigns.
People should start looking unto harvesting rainwater to their own land to save on water bills, reduce fire danger, downstream flooding, lessen brownouts, etc. Also buying foods from those that use rainwater harvesting methods that *include avoiding* fallow/bare ground ag practices, monocultures, overgrazing, synthetic chemical inputs, CAFOs, biome inappropriate plants, etc.
We as consumers can buy better. The best systems use polycultures of biome appropriate plants and use livestock to manage fertility, weeds, culls, crop residues, pests, etc while utilizing natural runoff collected to ponds, swales, bunds, etc.
Thanks for the update glad they finally quit trying to arrest people for giving us an update on the Lake Mead water levels too
When in the desert learn to love its native flora & fauna, more so because these are sustainable in the arid environment.
that white dog in the backpack looks like the dog we had for almost 16 years. He was a mini-poodle / sheltie mix named Berni. He's been gone almost 4 years. Miss him a lot.
Sorry to hear about little Berni🐾 I bet he had quite a personality too. I know the sheltie mixes also and they are adorable. All the poodle mixes really. Bella here is a cockerpoo so she has a lot of poodle going on too👍
if you look at the lake mead database website you will see that "they" are drawing down lake Powell as well as not releasing water downstream. "they" are behind the mandatory releases by 18% in the water year which is 42% completed. Games are being played
So, that's where all our snow went. Thanks for taking it from us.
Colorado?
@@mojo.adventures Minnesota
Ah, I get it now!😂 Hard to tell sometimes, folks in the upper basin get angered by the amount of snow melt and river water wasted downstream. So would you like some 115 degree days in return?😉
@@mojo.adventures No. I like my Summers where 90 degree days are relatively rare. And I really did mean, thank you for taking the snow from us.
(For the critics, Yes, I know weather doesn't work like that.)
It's a good thing it's raining cuz the snow levels on the Colorado River watershed aren't as high as last year. Winter's not over yet though.
Mead and Powell are fed by upstream snow pack. The Colorado river drainage is the main source for the water. Rainfall in southern Nevada basically has no impact on the lakes water.
Well said 👍 We are relying almost entirely on snowpack upstream. SNWA estimates that heavy rain periods in the Las Vegas valley usually only bring about *tenths of an inch* in elevation gain to Lake Mead at best.
fantastic, let's build 50 more golf courses in the desert.
God Is Here, Amen!
A couple things. The decisions were already made, the dams are built. Removing them, I think, would be a bigger problem than they would solve by taking them down. Plus, those dams are infrastructure that can never be replaced. We may need them sometime. Second: My first 10 years of home ownership here in the Valley, I kept a small lawn. I'm originally from Iowa. That's what you're supposed to do. I don't remember what the LVVWD was paying in the 2000's, but I happily accepted, went with desert landscape and sold the stupid mower.
Good observations! I don't think complete removal would be a good idea either. According to Murphy's Law, I have a feeling we'd see record flooding again as soon as one of the major dams were removed. I think if any action was be taken at this point, it should only be to install a "bypass" at Glen Canyon because the high intakes have been a problem during dry years. I wouldn't be opposed to seeing Lake Powell drawn way down during drought years then, but you could say I'm bias being in Las Vegas. When I first moved here the grass removal credit was already in place, but it didn't seem like many folks were interested. As a midwest escapee myself I couldn't wait to ditch the grass and mower and reclaim my Sundays. Now I have a colorful rock garden full of locally collected minerals. Haven't looked back since!🤠
@@mojo.adventures well another thing that would help is if during rainy years they would stop running flood water out to sea and redirected it to lake mead but instead of doing that during flood years they run it out too sea what is the logic in that please correct me if i am wrong.
The more surface area of water increases the evaporation rate. Now is the time to build large underground storage like the Japanese are digging for a Hyper Neutrino collector.
Everything's fixed... turn those sprinklers back on!
YES, all the rain has filled all the reservoirs in California
EXCEPT-
Last week the water managers went up into the mountains to measure the snowpack as they do every Feb and found LITTLE snow. California needs lots of snow in the mountains to melt slowly & replenish the reservoirs little by little to keep those reservoirs full all
summer long.
!
Thanks for commenting, I hadn't heard of that yet. Definitely not great news, but lots of heavy snow activity starting today so let's hope there's time to turn those numbers around a bit!👍
If you want the snow pack to put more water down stream to fill reservoirs then you want it to melt fast and run off. If it melts slow like you said then more of the water goes into the ground and doesn't make it to the reservoirs. So on years with little snow pack it's better to get hot fast and run it off into the reservoirs quickly
Thanks for the great content. Here in Az. 90% of structures are xeriscaped. Very few lawns. Why TH does Lost Wages have to pay wealthy people to pull out lawns? The building codes dictate how high, how deep, how wide, grading, drainage, electrical, structural, etc, etc. but no codes requiring lo 7:24 w water landscaping? Weird. Is it a water problem or a usage problem, as on all the golf courses & massive use of water by the casinos. The legacy of Harry Reid lives on in the continuing water theft from the Hwy. 93 corridor, & the illegal processes used to get more water for the SNWA. SICKENING. The over developers have the govt & attorneys on their side.
98
Another nice video, thank you!
Overcast skies allow enough ultraviolet through to overwhelm regular light with "color washout" that can be prevented by a UV filter.
Welcome back and thanks for the tip! Do you mean a lense filter for a camera? I'm a rookie when it comes to video/photography, just using an old GoPro I had lying around. Can't afford any professional creator gear as this is a just a hobby but definitely want to learn more about getting better shots.
@@mojo.adventures Google "uv filter for gopro"
@@mojo.adventures Try googling uv filter for gopro
@@mojo.adventures Search uv filter for gopo with your favorite search engine.
More rain coming to California ... and snow up in the Sierras. Should also push a good snow pack into Arizona, Nevada, and Colorado
This is precisely why reservoirs were conceived and developed. The idea was to even out the offerings of Mother Nature.
Just saw over 10 feet coming to the I-80 corridor today. BUCKLE UP!
There's enough idle ag land here in the well watered east that every acre of irrigated land you have could be left to dry up and no one would miss the output, except for desert specialty crops.
You have an interesting point there, thank you for commenting!👍 I think a lot of that has to do with the entire west being accustomed to hearing for decades and decades that California provides all our produce and we have to keep the industry there propped up no matter what. Even if there is rampant cronyism happening and they drain the resources in the process. In the modern day and age, almost anything can be grown indoors in industrial growhouses. There really is no reason to concentrate so much agriculture in California anymore if they can't get a handle on their resource issues. It almost seems like a national security issue to depend on one small region to provide so much. Our food chain in the west would be crippled without California right now. Of course, a lot of this is done intentionally to prop up their "5th largest economy" status, which, when you look, is gained through a lot of subsidization and cronyism...
Regulations are a huge hurdle to farming in Eastern states. Check out what Pennsylvania is doing to the Amish farmer, Amos Miller.
Meanwhile, The EU is shutting down farming in Europe, and off shoring it to newly clear cut rainforest in South America.
Growing watermelons in the desert is the least stupid thing people are doing.
It might be time to determine if they want people living in the desert or crop raised there. How many people can a desert region support? How many acres of crops to be shipped from the region. Many of the crops raised there are very high value crops, some can be substituted such as olives for olive oil, high oleic sunflowers has oil that is comparable to it in many ways.
Stationed at Nellis AFB from 1/77 to 12/80 and Lake Mead was always very full, a few times they had to blow off excess water. Of course there was only around 600k population then and yards really didn't have grass then and the only things on the strip with water features I remember was the small pond that was part of the Showboat casino and the fountains in front of Caesar's Palace.
I'll tell you many folks here recall that period you were here through the start of the 90's the glory days of the valley. I imagine the base was a lot smaller too. In my grumpy old opinion the city is too crowded now. Terrible traffic and drivers, no more small town neighbourly western feel. It's more like East L.A. these days. I was assigned to Nellis for quite a while and was surprised how much land was military controlled here between Nellis, Creech, and the entire test and training range. People don't realize how big these areas of desert are and that Las Vegas is just a tiny blip in the Mojave. Thank you for your service, and for watching and commenting!
@@mojo.adventuresI spent lots of time on the ranges including Groom Lake Base that people refer to as Area 51 (never saw anything but defense contractors btw) as I was a missile tech in Area 2 and we did a lot of recoveries and drove munitions up to Indian Springs before it was revamped into Creech AFB. Better part of the center of NV is military ranges and I spent a lot of time in various parts of it.
I was at Nellis June 1976 to November 1979. We may have crossed paths.
@@robertsmith7849Good possibility. I worked mostly out of the missile shop in Area 2 but did worked munitions delivery, trailer maint in Area 2, ammo shop and bomb shop both in area 2 and a couple months in jet engine support equipment. My assigned squadron was the 57th MMS which became the 57th EMS when the POMO change came about. Lots of trips on the ranges as well in my 4 yrs there.
@@russb257 I was 474 CRS Welding Shop Hanger 173. Didn't spend much time at Area 2.
Great episode. Get rid of the alfalfa and walnut trees in the desert! So obvious but giant agriculture firms have too much political power to stop them.
You nailed it... money, power, and influence. This problem could have been solved already. The government was originally giving that water to the Imperial Valley farmers for FREE trying to get agriculture booming in that area. We are simply seeing the end result of their resource planning.
When will we learn to just pay attention to Mother Nature who has successfully sustained these environments for millions of years. Green lawns have no place in the desert. Those who figure this out are learning how to create incredibly beautiful yards with native plants. Like Mother Nature does. Reduce water demand in a desert that does not sustain the demand? Duh!
I agree with you completely , but you got to know their are more people using the water ! Look at the story above , " The 3rd Straw " , this should make you real mad !!!
Not only lawns, but a desert environment cannot, in any reasonable way, support the number of people who now live there. Places like Phoenix, Las Vegas and many other parts of the desert southwest in Arizona, Nevada and California have swelled to unsustainable levels. Add to that the amount of agriculture that is dependent upon unnatural irrigation, it is bound to collapse at some point. Deserts are part of the natural environment, just as temperate zones and tropical zones. We can tweak things a little, but we have stressed the systems to beyond their capacity. Those reservoirs were never designed to handle the current demands, due to the increase of population in the region. In the big picture, you cannot engineer around nature.
no such person / diety as mother nature
Wow! So virtuous!!!🫵🏼😮😇
Sounds like a good argument against 99% of the people who live in the area. I like it 😊
Demand reduction with changes in crops and drip irrigation are the best way. Forward. The world changes and we need to adapt to it. Humans are apart of nature. We should seek to optimize the world for life. This will be a dynamic process.
Our friends in Texas could use some benefical rain too! Those fires are really wicked ! Thanks!
In my opinion we should abandon the Water Compact of 1922. That was over 100 years ago and doesn't reflect the population deistribution of today. In 1922, Las Vegas had 2302 people. That is why Nevada's share of the Colorado river is a tiny 2%. The water should be redistributed today based on population of the various states. Since Nevada's population is now a lot larger than it was in 1922 we should increase Nevada's allocation to 5% to 8% of the river.
YAY!!! Mother nature saves the day!😊
Increase the water bill and we will see water use drop!
My opinion is that Powell should have a tunnel dug that could completely drain it in a sever drought so that there's less total surface area for evaporation but keep the dam for future wet years. The only sure thing is that the long term future will have both drought & wet years & it's best to be prepared to handle both .
Lake Powell has 1960 miles of shoreline with enormous amounts of riparian plant and animal life. Draining it would be a monumental environmental catastrophe, but the Sierra Club has been trying to do just that for decades. Politics is an ugly thing.
Of course, any such actions would have to be written into the 2027+ update to the Upper Colorado River Compact. All that water belongs to _somebody_ in a total of seven states and is vital to small and large communities; part of it belongs to Mexico. It is not ours to steal.
@@flagmichael I never considered how all this affects Mexico. I would be curious what agreements the U.S. and Mexico have for releasing water to help maintain appropriate levels in Mexico.
What would have happened to the Hoover dam the year the Glen Canyon dam was almost lost if GC wasn't there?
It's hard to tell, I'd hope the USBR would have different operating plans where they drew Hoover down more before hand. Maybe Hoover's spillways would have sustained as much damage as Glen Canyon's did instead. Good thing it was in place because things were at critical point that year!
Is the 10 feet of snow predicted for the Sierra Nevadas going to help out?
Not as much as we'd expect, because California has already had to draw down their reservoirs and release water to sea to make more capacity. It would really help if there was more storage around central CA where the snowpack could be stored for the hotter months.
It appears the reservoirs above Powell held back a lot of last years melt because they were so low. Isn't there a risk of the rez's above Powell like Flaming Gorge, Strawberry and McPhee extremely overflowing during this years melt?
In my own view I don't think there is any risk at all in near future because Powell is so low still. Both reservoirs are in the 30% full range so there is loads of storage capacity downstream. Last year we saw the "high flow release" from Powell also which could be repeated if any hint of a surge looks like it's coming down the river. From what I've seen, the overflowing issue really only happens in California, where there isn't enough storage. Once a system moves in, they have to release water to sea in order to create room. It would be a miracle if Hoover Dam had to do emergency releases again, but I'd love to see it!
Another 10 ft of snow this week coming.
Oh boy that will be all of ten inches of water coming from the mountains.
Seeing as how Lake Mead is 100’ down from normal pool 10” of water ain’t gonna do much!