The View from Lady Lake: In a time of rising everything, how low can it go?

Saturday, July 2, 2022

In a time of rising everything, how low can it go?

A sunken boat dating back to the second world war is the latest object to emerge from a shrinking reservoir that straddles Nevada and Arizona.

The Higgins landing craft that has long been 185ft (56 meters) below the surface is now nearly halfway out of the water at Lake Mead.

Houseboats sit in a lake that has been much reduced by drought as evidenced by the dry hillsides rising up all around. In the distance, a bridge spans the dry expanse.The boat lies less than a mile from Lake Mead Marina and Hemingway Harbor.

It was used to survey the Colorado River decades ago, was sold to the marina and then sunk, according to dive tours company Las Vegas Scuba.

Higgins Industries in New Orleans built several thousand landing craft between 1942 and 1945, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. Around 1,500 “Higgins boats” were deployed at Normandy D-Day on 6 June 1944.

The boat is just the latest in a series of objects unearthed by declining water levels in Lake Mead, the largest human-made reservoir in the US, held back by the Hoover Dam. In May, two sets of human remains were found in the span of a week.

I wrote about one of the bodies found last week. Turned out to be an ex-gangster who went missing back in the late 40's.

Experts say 'climate change' (of course it is) and drought have led to the lake dropping to its lowest level since it was full about 20 years ago.

As water levels drop at both Lake Mead and Lake Powell upstream on the Arizona-Utah line, states in the US west increasingly face deeper cuts to their supply from the Colorado River. The lower levels also impact hydropower produced at Hoover Dam and Glen Canyon Dam, which holds back Lake Powell.