Back from the depths: Shrinking Lake Mead reveals WWII boat | American News

A sunken World War II boat is the latest object to emerge from a shrinking reservoir straddling Nevada and Arizona.

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

The boat is within one mile of Lake Mead Marina and Hemingway Harbor.

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

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

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

Experts say climate change and drought have caused the lake to drop 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, western US states are increasingly facing deeper reductions in their supply from the Colorado River. The lower levels also impact hydroelectricity generated at Hoover Dam and Glen Canyon Dam, which holds Lake Powell.

Camille Touton, commissioner of the United States Bureau of Reclamation, said last month that the agency would take steps to protect the system if the seven states in the Colorado River Basin did not quickly find a way to reduce the use of up to 4 million acre-feet. of water – more than the share of Arizona and Nevada combined.

An acre-foot is approximately 325,850 gallons (about 1.23 million liters). An average household uses between one-half and one acre-foot of water per year.

Both states, California and New Mexico have already passed voluntary and mandatory cuts. Water from some upper basin reservoirs – Wyoming, Colorado and Utah – was released to support Lake Powell. Farmers use the majority of the river’s supply.