Today, as our team ran through the Mojave Desert and past Lake Mead, we were all reminded that access to safe drinking water is not just an issue affecting the developing world. Although the Blue Planet Run’s mission is rightfully focused on the 1.1 billion people who currently do not have access to safe drinking water, the extended drought in Nevada and Arizona is a stark reminder to us all in the developed world that we are not without major water-related challenges, which could worsen significantly if our climate continues to change.

Lake Mead was formed in the 1930s through the damming of the Colorado River and ensures a steady supply of water to Arizona, Nevada, California, and northern Mexico. It is one of the largest reservoirs in the world, containing 36 trillion liters of safe drinking water. Given its critical importance, residents throughout the southwest US are understandably concerned by the lake’s record low water levels. Lower levels of spring runoff, combined with strong population growth in the Southwest, especially evident in Las Vegas, has led to a 105-foot decrease in the lake’s water level since the year 2000. Lake Mead’s water levels have not been this low since 1965. (For historical water levels, visit: http://www.arachnoid.com/NaturalResources/index.html. You can view satellite images of Lake Mead, dramatically illustrating the drop in water levels over the past few years at this site: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/LakeMead/lake_mead.html).

Do Lake Mead’s low water levels spell eventual doom and gloom? I’m not sure. Over the past 70 years there have been three major droughts, with the previous two (1953-1958 and 1963-1965) forcing the lake’s water level below the current mark. The lake was designed to adjust to the regular climatic cycles, such as we’ve seen. However, what is most concerning with the current situation is that the Bureau of Reclamation, which has been mandated by the Secretary of the Interior to come up with a plan for dealing with the current water shortfall, is expected to recommend stretching the existing supply of water by drawing on the water table, which can never be replaced. The only other potential solution is to enforce heavy conservation measures in Southern Nevada, California, and Arizona, which is unlikely to fly.

Whether the current drought is just part of the usual climatic cycles or one of the symptoms of global warming is hard to determine. Either way, as the situation continues to worsen at Lake Mead with every passing year, it is clear that drastic measures to deal with the crisis are on everyone’s mind, including policy-makers. As we run around the world for safe drinking water, we need not look outside the United States to see the critical importance of the issue.

Water is life. Pass it on.