UCLA faculty voice: California’s water crisis takes us beyond the ‘perfect drought’ | Sustainable LA Grand Challenge

June 22, 2015

6.22.15_UCLAFacultyVoiceCaliforniasWaterCrisisTakes.jpg — Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States, now stands at 37 percent of its maximum capacity. Federal authorities have projected that by January 2017 the surface elevation of Lake Mead will have fallen to below 1,075 feet above sea level, invoking a water shortage declaration.

Glen MacDonald (Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, department of Geography) writes that rising temperatures, groundwater depletion and a shrinking Colorado River mean the most populous U.S. state will face decades of water shortages and must adapt.