https://www.latimes.com/environment/sto ... pack-waterLake Mead, which has declined dramatically over the last two decades, is seen from Hoover Dam on March 14, 2025, in Boulder City. (another Boulder, not the refugee camp in Colorado)
California’s melting snow is filling the state’s reservoirs. (Spin) But dry conditions have shrunk the flow of the Colorado River, putting strains on a vital supply for Southern California... The latest forecast from the federal Colorado Basin River Forecast Center shows that the river’s flows into Lake Powell probably will be about 46% of average over the next three months... The snowpack in the upper Colorado River Basin reached 89% of the median level April 1, but the outlook has worsened over the last two months because of persistent dryness, warm temperatures and dry soils in the mountains that have absorbed a portion of the runoff.
The water level of Lake Powell, on the Utah-Arizona border, sits at 33% of capacity. Downstream near Las Vegas, Lake Mead is about 31% full... Representatives of California and six other states have been negotiating long-term plans for reducing water use after 2026, when the current rules expire, to deal with the ongoing shortages.
That last sentence is an example of De-Growth, forced on the nation by natural constraints. You'll see the same thing occurring all across the nation as the years move forward, Water, food, energy. All nature based resources we have been exploiting at maximum potential. If this had happened in 1950 I'm sure the government would have been out there funding thousands of deep wells to pump water into the dams
But those days are long gone, they can't even afford to put spaceships in orbit now.These dams drying up is a disaster actually, considering the amount of people that depend on them for water and electricity. Frankly they never should have built. It was a mistake, an act of hubris. If they had checked the sedimentary layers they would have realized that the high rainfall of the last half century or so was anomalous. Just another example of the federal government sinking a fortune in capital into dubious Wizz Bang technologies that have no future. Not that it matters, dams don't have a long lifespan anyway.
100 year old dam
https://content.ampp.org/coatingspro/ar ... StructuresThis two-part article is a review of the corrosion risk assessment, structural considerations, and engineering solutions for the steel reinforced structural elements within an aging concrete building that exhibited accelerated corrosion in corrosive environments, along with factors that could potentially result in the progressive failure and eventual collapse of an aging building.
Yes
It's all coming down. Every bridge, every dam, every multistory building. It's all a house of cards built from Portland cement and rust prone steel. 100~200 years should see the process to completion.
