SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
The Hoover Dam Reservoir is at an All-Time Low:
Much of the Western US faces drought, extreme heat, and fire risk
Lake Mead, the reservoir created by the Hoover Dam, that feeds water to 25 million people across Western states, is historically low. On June 9th, the water level dipped to 1,071.57 feet above sea level, narrowly beating a record low last set in 2016.
The lake surface has dropped 140 feet since 2000, leaving the reservoir just 37 percent full. With such a dramatic drop, officials expect to declare an official water shortage for the first time ever. That could affect water and energy that Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam deliver to Arizona, California, and Nevada.
Check out this drought map of the US.
How are things in your area? What steps (if any) have been taken to help improve the situation?
(Score: 2) by KilroySmith on Sunday June 13 2021, @01:55AM (3 children)
Knowing Californians as I do, they'll do worse than the Japanese - they'll likely build their next nuclear plant on top of the San Andreas fault because the land is cheap there.
And then they'll put the emergency water supply on the opposite side of the fault from the reactor, fed from the California Aquaduct ( https://www.npr.org/2015/01/27/381887197/southern-california-s-water-supply-threatened-by-next-major-quake [npr.org] )
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Sunday June 13 2021, @02:31AM
Meanwhile, there have been studies on evaporation from the Aqueduct... something like 80% of the water disappears between source and Los Angeles, but it was deemed "too expensive" to cover the damn thing to halt evaporative loss.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 14 2021, @03:14PM (1 child)
idiot question here: if there is an earthquake and the plant falls through the San Andreas crack, why would that be a problem?
(Score: 2) by KilroySmith on Monday June 14 2021, @07:36PM
Because nuclear plants don't disappear.
Sure, in a major earthquake there may be a visible fault line where the two sides have slid several feet relative to each other, but you don't get a yawning chasm big enough to drop a nuclear plant into the core of the earth. That only happens in comic strips. Instead, the ground motion breaks cooling pipes, causes electrical systems failures, cracks uncrackable concrete. Then the remnant heat of the core does the rest.