The historic four-year drought in California has been grabbing the
headlines lately, but there's a much bigger problem facing the West: the
now 14-year drought gripping the Colorado River basin.
One of the
most stunning places to see its impact is at the nation's largest
reservoir, Lake Mead, near Las Vegas. At about 40 percent of capacity,
it's the lowest it's been since it was built in the 1930s.
"Just
to see the rings around it, it's just ... kind of scary, you know," says
Darlene Paige, a visitor from New York. She's standing at a vista point
above the Hoover Dam on the side of Lake Mead.
That
"ring" is the infamous bathtub ring around the rim of the reservoir.
The levels have dropped 140 feet over the past 15 years, exposing a
white stain on the gravelly brown mountains above the water. The level
is forecast to fall an 10 feet by this summer.
The
snowpack in the Rocky Mountains, where the Colorado and much of the
Southwest gets most of its water, is again at less than half of normal
this year.
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