Lake Mad The streaks of white on the rock ringing the nation’s largest reservoir show how far its water levels have dropped since it was last full.
By Jacob Fischer || Arizona Mirror
Lake Mead and nearby Lake Powell, which send water to 40 million people in the Southwest, are at their lowest levels since they were filled in the 1930s as part of the Hoover Dam’s construction on the Colorado River.
The lake actually overflowed in 1983 and nearly hit capacity in 1999. Now, it’s at only 26 percent of its capacity—and losing altitude monthly as a decades-long drought brought on by a changing climate keeps it from replenishing the supply.
Yet in a crucial U.S. Senate campaign primarily being waged a short drive away that could sway control of the chamber, the candidates are barely mentioning the disappearing water levels and the drought that’s causing it.
In part, that’s because residents see adapting to drought conditions as a local issue. In part, it’s because more immediate concerns have risen to the top of many voters’ minds this year in Nevada and across the United States in advance of the midterm elections—most prominently, inflation and abortion rights.
“Polls show that Americans are concerned about and love the environment,” Steve Blackledge, the conservation program director for the advocacy group Environment America, said in an interview.
“But we live in a time of short news cycles, and come election time, when it’s not prime wildfire or hurricane season, the changing climate can be out of sight, out of mind. It doesn’t make the top three bullet points in a stump speech. Honestly, I wish it were otherwise, but candidates still know the environment matters to voters.”
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