Reason #89 Why I Love To Blog -- Update On Lake Mead -- July 10, 2016

Three days ago, July 7, 2016, just on a whim, nothing else to do, I checked the level of Lake Mead -- and noted the lake had reached "historic lows."

Today, three days later, a headline story in today's Los Angeles Times: facing historically low levels, Lake Mead officials are fending off a water war.

This may be what the start of a water war looks like.

Drought is draining the West’s largest reservoir, Lake Mead, to historic low levels.

Forecasts say climate change will make things worse. Headlines warn of water shortages and cutbacks. Members of Congress are moving to protect their states’ supplies.

Yet if war is really imminent, why is one of the region’s most experienced water managers doing the same thing he has done for years: tinkering?

“I like to describe this as another incremental step,” said Tom Buschatzke, director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources.

Buschatzke was talking about a plan he is helping develop, along with water managers in California, Nevada and Mexico, that would voluntarily reduce water allocations from the Colorado River to those three states and Mexico. They hope to have it in place in time to avoid steeper, mandatory cuts that could begin as soon as 2018.

And much, much more at the link.

And if you have nothing else to do, google: the 'Holy Grail' for earthquake scientists has been accidentally destroyed, or if you have a subscription: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-earthquake-curb-destroyed-20160705-snap-htmlstory.html.

What are the odds?