By early next year, Federal officials are expected to have in place a series of specific steps to take if Lake Mead water levels continue to drop.

This is a plan where Nevada could actually lose about seven percent of the water it is allowed to draw from Lake Mead under the worst of drought circumstances.

And southern Nevada irresponsibly continues to grant building permits to developers so that eventually the Las Vegas valley can be paved from smog shrouded mountain to smog shrouded mountain, gambling that somehow the drought is going to magically vanish and we can water the tourists and watch them grow.

At the same time that the lake is vanishing, the Park Service has announced that part of the boat ramp at the lake is closed over the next few weeks while a new concrete ramp is completed aimed at reaching the receding waterline. This is at the same place where part of the marina has already been moved because the basin is shrinking too far and fast to keep the marina in place. Will this be a $6.5 million boat ramp to nowhere?