Lake Mead water levels keep ↘↘↘

Lake Mead's plummeting water level is sad on its own, but it also represents a microcosm of larger climate, clean energy, & infrastructure policy issues.

Lake Mead is the water reservoir that powers the Hoover Dam. Its water levels have dropped substantially over the past 25 years — so much that Hoover Dam might be incapable of consistently generating electricity in 20 years (assuming the latest 25 year trends persist).

While a big deal for Clark County Nevada, it’s also worth thinking about the situation as a microcosm of heavily interconnected — and sometimes at-odds — policy circles:

• Infrastructure & Industrial Policy: governments have shown more willingness to build stuff, lately (although, not nearly fast enough). After the passage of the Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, massive public infrastructure projects — like the Hoover Dam during the Depression — may make a comeback.

• Climate Change: falling water levels and dry, exposed lakebed is a pretty obvious example of what the future will look like for rivers, lakes, and streams. It also reduces output of pollution-free hydropower.

• Clean Energy Development: Hoover Dam is one of the oldest, most productive sources of pollution-free electricity in the world. The U.S. has a lot of untapped potential for hydropower.

• Environmental & Sustainability Policy: dams are controversial in the environmental community; they do produce clean electricity (which we desperately need), but they are very disruptive to ecosystems and wildlife.

Google Earth has a cool feature that lets you look at imagery from the past. The four pictures below show growing area of dry, white exposed lakebed. The pictures are 1992, 2002, 2014, and 2023 (clockwise from the top left).

Lake Mead near Hoover Dam ( ▘1992 | ▝ 2002 | ▖2014 | ▗ 2023)