11 July 2022 GMT https://apnews.com/article/lake-mead-drought-photo-gallery-abab298019a44aef0181ad79aad12ab9 BOULDER CITY, Nev. (AP) — An abandoned old electric boat juts upright from the cracked mud like a giant tombstone. His epitaph could be: Here lie the waters of Lake Mead. The largest US reservoir has shrunk to a record low amid a punishing drought and the demands of 40 million people in seven states that drain the Colorado River. The severe drought in the US West has been exacerbated by climate change. The fire season has gotten longer and the flames hotter, record-breaking hot temperatures and lakes are shrinking. The receding waters of Lake Mead National Recreation Area have revealed the skeletal remains of two people along with countless dried fish and what has become a graveyard of forgotten and abandoned boats. Houseboats, sailboats and motorboats have washed ashore, creating a surreal scene in an otherwise rugged desert landscape. A buoy that once marked a no-ship zone sits on the ground, not a drop of water anywhere in sight. Even a sunken World War II-era vessel that once surveyed the lake has surfaced from the low tide waters. Nature did not create this paradise on the calm waters for fishing, camping and kayaking. The mighty Colorado River that separates Nevada from Arizona once flowed beneath the walls of Black Canyon until the Hoover Dam was erected in 1935 for irrigation, flood control and hydroelectric power. The tank is now below 30 percent capacity. Its level has dropped 170 feet (52 meters) since it peaked in 1983, leaving a bright white line of mineral deposits on the canyon’s brown walls that towers over passing motorboats as tall as a 15-story building. Most of the boat ramps have been closed and the marina docks moved to deeper water. A sign marking the water level in 2002 stands incongruously above a road that slopes down to slip the boat in the background. Falling water levels have consequences not only for cities that depend on a future water source, but also for navigators who must navigate shallow waters and avoid islands and sandbars that lurk beneath the surface before surfacing. Craig Miller was driving his houseboat last month when the engine died and it floated to shore. Within days, the deep water where his boat rested was gone. “It’s amazing how quickly the water went down,” Miller said. “I was Mediterranean.” He bought pumps and tried to dredge the sand around the boat to create a channel to the water, but he couldn’t stay ahead of the receding waters. A shallow water tug, originally estimated at $4,000, came in at a $20,000 salvage job when it got stuck. Miller spent three weeks on the pontoon, spending much of it in the water to stay cool in the triple-digit heat. A day before park rangers told him he had to take the boat off the sand, Dave Sparks, a social media personality known as Heavy D who had seen a video of Miller’s plight, showed up with a crew to pull the boat. from shore and tow it to a marina. Others have flocked to the dried lakebed for selfies in the haunting landscape or against the backdrop of what looks like a colossal ring around a bathtub. The dried lakebed looks like shattered glass, cracks widening in the hot sun and mud fading from brown to beige. A small school of dead fish have rested on their tails and are arranged in a circle. As the sun sets to the west over Las Vegas, the light illuminates the translucent body and empty socket of a fish. His mouth is open as if he is trying to breathe.
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