Water Is Life - Lake Mead/Hoover Dam

Water Is Life – We Cannot Take It For Granted 

 Originally published in The Lowell Ledger 6/25/2022 

 Michigan truly is a water wonderland. As residents of a state surrounded by twenty percent of all the available freshwater on the entire planet, we might take water for granted. Yes, our little mitten shaped portion of the globe gives us access to one fifth of the fresh water available to the world. Let that sink in, will you? 

 Julie and I recently took a work vacation trip to Las Vegas to attend a jewelry show. We stayed some extra days so that I could check a visit to the Hoover Dam off my bucket list (more on that later). For most of the daylight hours during our six days out west the temperatures were triple digits – the highest was 111 degrees. Sure, it is a “dry heat” compared to Michigan with the humidity levels at 10 to 15 per cent. However, 111 still feels like walking around in an oven and the decided lack of humidity, read WATER, is the subject I want to address here. 

 In case you are unaware, many parts of the Western US have been experiencing draught conditions over the last few years. The fight over water in areas of California that produce a huge percentage of the fruits, vegetables, and nuts that the entire nation consumes is getting very ugly and will be getting uglier. The Great Salt Lake in Utah has shrunk by two-thirds from the level it was at in the 1980s. You might be tempted to ask: Who cares? Well, Salt Lake City is home to almost 75% of the population of the entire state of Utah. I just read an article that explained scientists are concerned that one terrible result of the massive evaporation of the Great Salt Lake is that Salt Lake City could begin to experience toxic dust clouds from the arsenic on the lake bed that is being exposed. So the answer is that the 1,192,000 people who live in Metro Salt Lake City should be very concerned. 

The Hoover Dam is considered one of the modern wonders of the world. By placing a dam on the mighty Colorado River at just the right place in Black Canyon, with its perfect combination of bed rock strength and narrowness, it seemed at the time to be the perfect answer to providing water to the dry areas of Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, California, and even a part of Mexico. As a bonus, the dam provides enough electricity for 1.3 million people. Sounds like a win-win situation, right? Well, it was indeed eight decades ago. 

Things are looking very grim in 2022. On my visit to Las Vegas I learned how the population has blossomed (ballooned?) to over two million people. The lights of the Vegas strip are surrounded by the lights of homes and businesses that spread out to all corners of the valley and made this small town resident slack jawed at the twinkling beauty after dark. The very technological miracle that allows the neon circus of the Vegas Strip as well as the twinkle from hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses has brought about its own approaching demise. 

 As you can see from the picture, the level of Lake Mead behind the Hoover Dam is falling like a stone. We spoke to a Ranger at one of the Visitor Centers on the Federal Land that surrounds the dam. She grew up there and told us how there used to be five large marinas with thousands of boats. That number has been reduced to one marina and she said they have to move their docks every two to three weeks because the level of the lake is dropping so fast. Speaking of the parks, State and National, that surround Vegas, there are signs everywhere in them warning visitors of the importance of staying hydrated. This is not for sport, just to stay alive and healthy. 

I found this out first hand on our third day there. For some reason I neglected the constant sipping of water I was diligent about for the first couple days. Between the trade show and wandering around, Julie and I walked 13 miles that day. By late afternoon, I thought I was coming down with something; then it hit me as I drank 16 ounces of ice tea in record time that I had neglected to keep fluids flowing into my body. When it is 108 degrees with low humidity, sweat does not drip down your face; it evaporates as soon as it shows up! 

While the importance of water is emphasized at every possible place in the surrounding desert, a perusal of Vegas gives the impression that there is more than enough water for everything. The Bellagio Resort is a prime example. The famous fountains sit in a man-made lake that holds 22 million gallons of water in its eight and a half acre boundaries. Sounds cool, yeah? Well that same lake loses an estimated 12 million gallons a year to evaporation. Mandalay Bay has 1.6 million gallons of water just for the shark tank. The Venetian has over a quarter million gallons flowing, and evaporating, from a system of canals that are in and outside the resort in which you can ride a gondola. 

Can you say “swimming pools”? Every resort has at least one huge pool and many of them have several. Fountains abound all over the strip – inside and outside. Don’t get me wrong – I love pools, swimming, and lakes with all my heart. Lake Michigan is my Happy Place. However, the situation in Vegas reminds me of the story of Emperor Nero, who supposedly was happy to jam away on his violin while his city burned to the ground. I saw no evidence of any effort to conserve the most fundamental element to human life during my Vegas visit. We can live a lot longer without food than water. Our bodies are 60% water. 

So, who cares how much water is used/wasted in Vegas and the rest of the West? Well, for starters the two million people out there better start caring. While we were there a news story popped up on my phone about how the leaders in the states who get water from Lake Mead are trying to decide how to begin water rationing because there seems to be no end in sight for the dry conditions. People blew a gasket at the suggestion they wear a mask for public health, can you imagine the reaction when they get notified they will have to let their lawn and flowers die, shorten their shower time, and stop washing the car? If you think none of that has any effect on Michigan, hold on. How are you going to feel when Nevada et al want to build a giant pipeline to get some of our fresh water? Are we going to want to share with open arms and hearts? All of us need to wake up and smell the water. We need to take care of this most fundamental element. Don’t waste it, don’t pollute it, and do not take it for granted.