Once the pollution makes it to Lake Mead, a series of events will unfold that will affect the entire West Coast.

I live in Boulder City, where Hoover Dam and Lake Mead are located. My father worked at Hoover Dam for the Department of Water and Power and retired in 2000. He's told me some VERY interesting facts about what will happen once that water reaches Lake Mead.

Lake Mead is an artificially created lake that was designed to back up water from the Colorado river into a reservoir that could be used for drinking water, power, agriculture and to also be piped to California for the same uses.

Because of the major drought that California is experiencing, the Lake Mead water level is dwindling and is expected to dry up within years if it continues to drop at the same rate. California relies heavily on Lake Mead water; especially Los Angeles.

The government will have the opportunity of stopping the spread of the pollution at Hoover Dam by simply turning off the flow of water from Lake Mead to the Colorado River. This will set off a series of events.

Electricity flowing from Hoover Dam will come to a halt, causing power outages to Las Vegas and many other local cities.

Water will cease to continue down the Colorado River, causing most of the agriculture to dry up at all the remaining states the river flows through; including its final destination - Mexico.

The major source of drinking water for Las Vegas and surrounding cities will no longer be usable, and all water related services dependent upon Lake Mead will be useless.

Tourism to Las Vegas will greatly decrease when tourists know that contaminated orange water will likely be coming out of their shower heads and out of their faucets. Imagine the Bellagio fountains spewing toxic orange water in the air!

These just in themselves are major disruptions in power, water, food and economy. If you think the drought is bad now on the West Coast, imagine that without any of the support of Lake Meads resources.

Is there any precedent with cleaning a spill like this? Can any of the same technology from the recent oil spills be used to clean this mess before it causes irreparable damages?