Lakes are STILL RISING! Summer Tragedies | Lake Mead UPDATE July 2023 #water #update #2023 #lasvegas

Hello and welcome back to another

lake

created on the Colorado River. Watch the

update

with

water

levels

rising

in the west. Conversations about conservation and use have been winding down lately as we officially begin the

summer

solstice. Let's take a look at how far our major reservoirs have come. just a short year in southern Nevada with the forecast well below seasonal averages for weeks at a time. Las Vegas even broke its own record for most consecutive days below 100 degrees Fahrenheit, with June 26 marking 291 consecutive days below 100 degrees. The previous record was set in 1965. This highlights how unusual average temperatures have been lately.

It appears that El Niño, which we mentioned in the last

update

, has indeed arrived, bringing a ship to cooler, wetter weather across the southwestern US. And while increased precipitation throughout June won't affect the

lake

level almost. As much as lingering snow melts during the winter, moisture and cooler temperatures in the region are doing their small part to help maintain lake levels and curb evaporative losses due to the

summer

heat that would normally average over 100 degrees Fahrenheit at this time. Now let's take a look at how this culmination of El Niño and our strong winter is settling in.

Downstream in the reservoirs, the

water

level in Lake Mead has now risen to 1,056 feet above sea level, an increase of about 10 feet compared to the same time before. year that saw water levels plummet amid a sweltering summer, mild Southwest weather and continued Rocky Mountain snowmelt, Feed in Colorado has also allowed Lake Powell Upstream to rise to the 3,583-foot level, Recovering more than 40 feet since this time last year and with snowmelt

still

feeding the Colorado River during early summer, Powell was

rising

at a rate of one foot per day, however, all good things must come to an end and Eventually the snowmelt will clear, flows will accelerate and gains will peak, but this remarkable year of water may be able to extend us into the next monsoon season and then into next winter, a few more El Niño seasons along with adjustments in our use and further conservation could certainly seem like the perfect storm we had been waiting for in an increasingly thirsty world.

Southwest, but this is only if we can all get involved during this grace period right now so we don't end up back in another drought as soon as La Niña re-emerges in a few years with water levels now rising in the West and California. reservoirs apparently overflowing since March interest seems to be waning in our water problems of recent years although, in fact, since we announced a provisional agreement on the river in April, there does not seem to have been many news updates or reports on the issue. All water stakeholders are now happy waiting for new decisions and guidance from the federal government, perhaps everyone from water managers to residents is simply tired of arguing about water and now that we have abundant water, the problem seems be a memory problem.

From my perspective, it appears we will see little additional action on usage rules until 2026, as everything until then would be voluntary and as we saw in the last update with federal drought relief payments. There is now little to no reward for states to voluntarily conserve water at this time due to the lack of action around the river compact lately. I'm going to take a look at some local stories around Lake Mead today in the watershed bin, so let's jump right in. Our first story focuses on the increase in visitation and the subsequent increase in incidents around the lake.

In the last update, we shared how visitors were starting to return to the lake with rising water levels. We even showed some new Las Vegas residents the lake and this adorable skunk pup. He went swimming for the first time, but with increased sponsorship and Las Vegas guests more incidents occur, which was the unfortunate case during this year's Father's Day weekend. It's been a while since we've heard about many fatal accidents at Lake Mead like the ones I covered last summer, but over Father's Day weekend a series of incidents left five people dead and numerous people injured.

One of these tragic events was a car accident on Lakeshore Drive that claimed the lives of three people for those of you who have been on the canal for a long time. Kinda, you can see from our driving clips that most of Lake Mead is two-lane head-on traffic traveling through some pretty remote parts of the county. Be careful with your speed when driving within the park and be courteous to other tourists as these curvy roads can become a dangerous route for distracted or disabled people. Two more lives were lost to drowning, which is an unfortunate occurrence that occurs regularly at Lake Mead during peak season, the weather can change quickly and even in perfect weather people take to swimming quickly.

Without safety equipment it can disappear or appear sunken in seconds. We have since learned from the local news that one of those lost to drowning that weekend was a Las Vegas who was visiting the lake for a quick swim with his German Shepherd. Fredo remembers his mother Christina as someone with a zest for life but was always soft on the inside but had a heart on the outside just because of what she went through in her life raising me it's not easy raising a man you know but without her I wouldn't be the one man who Today, a week after the tragic events of Father's Day weekend, a couple rented a pontoon boat for a day of fun and sun on Lake Mead.

At some point during their excursion, one of the subjects jumped into the water and later disappeared due to apparent drowning. Park Raiders continued today Searching the waters of Lake Mead for a man who fell overboard Thursday and this comes after two drownings at the lake last weekend, the National Park Service says a man and A woman rented a pontoon boat at the Las Vegas Harbor on Lake Mead on Thursday and it appears the man may have jumped off the boat and never resurfaced. As of this update, the man is

still

missing and the case is under investigation.

Alright folks, if you're enjoying these aerial images, let's give a big thank you to Dan at Critter Camera. Dan is Another Las Vegas local who is kind enough to provide this footage and all he asks is that you visit his Critter Camera page and subscribe. If you're obligated, I'll leave a link in the description. The good thing about the channel. is that they plan to give 50% of the profits back to animal rescues to help our four-legged friends, so help them reach 1000 subscribers and move on to our second story in the Basin bin. Today we received an alert from the National Park Service to stay away from the Las Vegas wash on the west branch of the lake because a flow experiment is underway, so we headed down to see if we could get a glimpse of the Las Vegas wash.

Las Vegas is the city's natural and engineered water recycling system. Over 25 mile long artery to recover city water and urban runoff and return it to Lake Mead, where it is used over and over again. In late June, the Southern Nevada Water Authority planned a series of intermittent low and high flow events in this waterway. Over several days, testing was conducted downstream of North Shore Road within the boundaries of Lake Mead Park and just below the Lake Las Vegas Dam. During the test, the Southern Nevada Water Authority repeatedly withheld and then released large amounts of water, creating a series of intermittent tests.

Low flows and high flows in the channel when this happens could create a potentially dangerous situation for anyone in the wash. Tests are prepared by closing the gates at the top of the wash bypass until the water rises. Here you can see the difference. in the upper wash near Lake Las Vegas it overflows when the gates are closed and the water is prepared, the desired amount of water is withdrawn, the gates open and the torrent of water flows down through the diversion and out into the wash down from there The overflow travels through the park passing the now dry Las Vegas Bay and returns to Lake Mead during flow tests.

The NPS warned visitors to enjoy the wash from afar and stay on park trails to stay on Higher Ground, our third floor in the Basin. bin today also focuses on the Las Vegas washout in connection with an incident that occurred a few weeks before flow testing on June 14, the Southern Nevada Water Authority reported that nearly 900,000 gallons of raw sewage were leaked near the Las Vegas Wash, upstream of Lake Las Vegas and Lake Mead, the leak originated from a manhole cover near the Whitney Pump Station, a low point in the Las Vegas Wash behind Sam Boyd Stadium .

Investigators discovered that something went wrong at this facility late last week, leaving about nine hundred thousand gallons of raw sewage leaking and accumulating. In this area, as you can see from our drone, a partially closed valve between the pump station and a rock thrower was blamed, causing about nine hundred thousand gallons to flow back into the recovered washwater. It was reported that emergency crews responding to the Spill were able to recover approximately 300,000 gallons of wastewater, but even those actions left about two-thirds of the spill to spread. Downstream, the Clark County Water Reclamation District estimates that about 60,000 gallons of the leak traveled into the creek that feeds the Las Vegas Wash and continues into Lake Las Vegas and Lake Mead.

Worse yet, this one didn't. This is the first time a sewage leak has occurred at this location, as a previous incident was reported in 2020 that was attributed to corroded pipes at the time. Improvements have been made to the wash itself over the decades as the city has grown, including the installation of several weirs to slow the flow and erosion caused by water, but it appears that parts of the treatment infrastructure and water reclamation need an update, as evidenced by the second appearance of the wastewater bill now, if you want to see a detailed special on how the Las Vegas wash works and how it has changed with the city over the years , let us know in the comments below In the meantime, when walking through this area or any dry wash, stay alert for natural and man-made flash flooding and remember to head to Higher Ground.

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