August 16
– CNBC
(Pippa Stevens):
“The U.S. government… declared the first-ever water shortage at Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir by volume, after water levels fell to record lows amid a decades-long drought. Water cuts will go into effect in January for Arizona, Nevada and Mexico, the Bureau of Reclamation said... Arizona will take the biggest hit, with about 18% of the state’s annual apportionment cut.”
August 14
– Wall Street Journal
(Lindsay Huth and
Taylor Umlauf):
“As drought persists across more than 95% of the American West, water elevation at the Hoover Dam has sunk to record-low levels, endangering a source of hydroelectric power for an estimated 1.3 million people across California, Nevada and Arizona. The water level at Lake Mead, the Colorado River reservoir serving the Hoover Dam, fell to 1,068 ft. above sea level in July, the lowest level since the lake was first filled… in the 1930s… For dams to produce power, they rely on the immense pressure created by the body of water they are blocking. As water levels go down, less pressure is exerted and the dams in turn produce less hydroelectric energy, which means the dam can produce less power.”
August 16
– Bloomberg
(Mark Chediak):
More than a million acres of California landscape have been torched and Golden State firefighters are bracing for more conflagrations this week. Crews are battling 10 large blazes including the Dixie Fire, the second-biggest in state history, that has already scorched about 570,000 acres and destroyed more than 1,000 structures, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.”
August 19
– Reuters
(Karl Plume):
“There was barely a buzz in the air as John Miller pried the lid off of a crate, one of several ‘bee boxes’ stacked in eight neat piles beside a cattle grazing pasture outside Gackle, North Dakota. ‘Nothing,’ Miller said as he lifted a plastic hive frame from the box, squirming with only a few dozen bees. ‘Normally this would be dripping, full of honey. But not this year.’ A scorching drought is slashing honey production in North Dakota, the top producing state of the sweet syrup, and a shortage of bees needed to pollinate fruits and flowers puts West Coast cash crops like almonds, plums and apples at risk, according to more than a dozen interviews with farmers, bee experts, economists and farm industry groups.”