Structural Deficit
Contributed By
PBS Learning Media
Structural Deficit
Since 2000, in the current drought, we've seen Lake Mead decline by more than a hundred feet in elevation. Some would say, well that's the sign of the drought and it's true in part. But the normal amount, and I put quotes around that, the "normal" amount of water, eight and a quarter million acre feet or more was released from Lake Powell every year to Lake Mead, and yet Lake Mead dropped every year. The reason that we have this structural deficit and the reason that we're heading this way is because we're not charging those evaporative losses in Lake Mead.