Tag Archive for: declining water level

Once-Exposed Boats in Lake Mead Covered by Water Again, but Progress is Minimal Amid Record Drought

Boats at the bottom of Lake Mead that were exposed by dwindling lake levels are finally underwater again, but the recovery is relatively small compared to the severity of the drought.

In the summer of 2022, folks flocked to a upright boat in Lake Mead. YouTubers “Sin City Outdoors” documented the dramatic fall of lake levels as it dwindled to a historic 1,040 feet. FOX5 covered their efforts to document the numerous boats that emerged from the deep, including a historic WWII vessel.

A Water War is Underway in Santa Barbara County’s Carrot Country

The Cuyama Valley, the driest region in Santa Barbara County, is awash in discontent. The world’s largest carrot producers, newly subject to restrictions on over-pumping, are suing all other landowners over water rights, and legal fees are mounting. The Cuyama groundwater basin, which covers 380 square miles east of Santa Maria, overlapping with Kern, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura counties, is on the list of the state’s 21 basins in “critical overdraft.”

L.A.’s New Water War: Keeping Supply From Mono Lake Flowing as Critics Want It Cut Off

With its haunting rock spires and salt-crusted shores, Mono Lake is a Hollywood vision of the apocalypse. To the city of Los Angeles, however, this Eastern Sierra basin represents the very source of L.A.’s prosperity — the right to free water.

For decades, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has relied on long-standing water rights to divert from the streams that feed this ancient lake as part of the city’s far-flung water empire. But in the face of global warming, drought and lawsuits from environmentalists, the DWP is now facing the previously unthinkable prospect of ending its diversions there.