Latest news with #LakeMead
Washington Post
27-05-2025
- Business
- Washington Post
The Colorado River is running low. The picture looks even worse underground, study says
The dwindling flow of the Colorado River has alarmed the American West for years but the water losses happening underground are even worse, according to a new study that uses satellite data to measure groundwater supplies across the Colorado River basin. The research found that the region lost 27.8 million acre feet of groundwater since 2003, roughly the same volume as the total capacity of Lake Mead — the nation's largest reservoir — and that the decline accelerated rapidly over the past decade. These groundwater losses accounted for more than twice the amount taken out of reservoirs in the region during that time.
Daily Mail
16-05-2025
- Daily Mail
Veterinarian's cause of death revealed after he disappeared amid viral footage of him beating a horse
A Nevada veterinarian died by suicide amid massive backlash to a video showing him beating a horse. The body of Shawn Frehner, 56, was recovered from Lake Mead on April 18 - nearly two weeks after he vanished. The Office of the Clark County Coroner and Medical Examiner has since ruled that Frehner died of drowning - with the use of pentobarbital as a contributing factor, KTNV reports. The drug, which Frehner injected himself with, is used for euthanizing animals, according to News 3 LV. Frehner had been facing felony animal abuse charges when he disappeared on April 6, after he was filmed abusing a horse he had been called out to help. It was shared by the horse's owner, Shawna Gonzalez, and showed Frehner kicking her horse Big Red in the jaw. On Facebook, Gonzalez wrote that her daughter began recording the veterinarian after being concerned by how tightly he appeared to have wound a rope around the colt's neck. 'I heard [my mother] yell, "Oh my God. He just kicked him,"' Gonzalez recounted. Frehner had been facing felony animal abuse charges when he disappeared on April 6, after he was filmed abusing a horse he had been called out to help 'He wrapped the horse around his neck three times, and he kicked him in the head. 'I had started having a severe anxiety attack and couldn't breathe myself. 'I was already on the ground, and my daughter picked up the phone and hit record, and that's when she got him on videotape, kicking him.' The animal was left with abrasions to the skull and taken to Desert Pines Equine Center. Gonzalez also claimed that the vet bills for Red are likely to run into the thousands and requested donations to Desert Pine Rescue Center. 'The abuse and cruelty my horse suffered on 4/3/2025 was inhumane, disgusting, appalling, and the most hurtful thing and from the hands of vet that I trusted and Red trusted,' she wrote shortly after the incident. As the clip went viral, some social media users sent the veterinarian death threats - while others flooded his business page with negative reviews. Eventually, Frehner took to his own social media page to apologize - claiming that the video did not show the full story. 'I did not blatantly haul off and kick this horse as it appears in the video. That was not my intention at all,' Frehner wrote, 8News Now reports. 'It was done simply to get the horse in a better position so that he could breathe and get up and move so I could again try to anesthetize.' 'But yes I did kick him right in the chin and I very much do apologize and wish this never happened,' he wrote. Shortly after writing the apology, though, Frehner seemed to have deleted the post as he disappeared. Investigators soon honed in on Lake Mead, after discovering his wallet, keys and cellphone in an unoccupied truck near the edge of the enormous reservoir. At the time, Frehner's father said he did not know why his son would have gone to Lake Mead - noting that he did not own a boat. He then told investigators he was concerned for his son's safety amid the online vitriol. Meanwhile, Gonzalez said she, too, was distraught by the news of his disappearance. 'It's horrible, I never, ever wished this upon him, I never wished this upon anybody' she said. 'This is not what I wanted in the end at all.'
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Excessive warm weather and below-average snowpack cause concern for Lake Mead's water levels
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – Water officials are bracing for impact as the excessive warm weather and below-average snowpack across the Rockies have caused concern for the nation's largest reservoir. 'It's a big lake, huge lake, but it's a shame to see it go down this much,' Gary Peck, a boater at Lake Mead, shared with 8 News Now. 'The volume of water was much higher a decade ago than it is right now, and when we go around the lake, you can see all of these empty spots where we used to go and jump in the water,' Suzana Fox, a boater at Lake Mead shared. Federal data and predictions about our reservoir's elevations show a decrease in water levels. Those at the Great Basin Water Network are expecting the nation's largest reservoir to drop a number of feet this summer. 'This year, it seems like we are hitting an intense pattern of aridity. We're not seeing the moisture that we saw in 2023 going into 2024,'Great Basin Water Network Executive Director, Kyle Roerink, explained. He also added that it's vital for consumers to be conservative with their water usage right now. 'We have to remember that Las Vegas is in the Mojave Desert, so one of the driest places in the nation and in the world. We have to be very conscious,' he said. 'Unfortunately, there's so much uncertainty just behind the hydrology because we are waiting for some major agreements between the seven Colorado River basin states, the federal government, and Mexico, but since the new administration came into office, a lot of things have been upended.' The Great Basin Water Network was formed to protect the water resources for residents, animals, and plants and promote water conservation programs. The Great Basin includes parts of Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Oregon, and California. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
E&E News
08-05-2025
- Business
- E&E News
Reclamation strikes deal to conserve more Colorado River flows
The Interior Department announced that it will store an additional 321,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Mead — enough to raise the reservoir's water level by 5 feet — through 2026, extending existing conservation agreements with water users in Arizona and California. The agreements, which Interior said would build on 18 existing deals with tribal, municipal and agricultural water users, come amid negotiations over a long-term operating plan for the drought-stricken Colorado River. The program will cost more than $128 million, with payments of $400 per each acre-foot of water conserved, according to data provided by the Bureau of Reclamation. An acre-foot of water is equal to about 326,000 gallons, or enough water to support two to three families for a year. Advertisement Among the water users with the largest contributions are the San Carlos Apache Tribe in Arizona, which will forgo 70,000 acre-feet of water, and the city of Tucson, Arizona, which will give up 50,000 acre-feet in 2026. Previous agreements had the tribe striking a deal to save nearly 24,000 acre-feet of flows in 2023, and Tucson conserving 110,000 acre-feet of flows between 2023 and 2025.
