Lake Mead’s dive team operations quietly suspended by National Park Service
The pause leaves local agencies handling dive incidents as officials review staffing, training and equipment, with Lake Mead averaging 20 deaths a year, mostly drownings.
- The National Park Service suspended the Lake Mead National Recreation Area dive team in mid-May due to staffing shortages, ending the park's ability to conduct underwater recoveries of drowning victims.
- President Donald Trump's administration reduced the federal workforce, cutting at least a dozen staff members from the park as dive team membership fell below safety standards.
- More than 6 million people visit Lake Mead annually, yet a study found approximately 7 percent of national park deaths in America occurred at the site, consistently ranking it among the deadliest.
- During the suspension, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Search and Rescue Dive Team will handle dive-related incidents as the service remains committed to "maintaining public safety" through cooperative arrangements.
- The service will perform an audit of the program's safety, training, equipment and operations during the indefinite suspension to address ongoing risks from multiple drownings reported this year.
8 Articles
8 Articles
Associated Press News
Lake Mead’s dive team operations quietly suspended by National Park Service
Dive team operations at Southern Nevada’s Lake Mead National Recreation Area, consistently ranked as one of America’s most deadly federal recreation sites, have quietly been suspended because of staffing shortages and unmet equipment and training needs.
Dive operations at Lake Mead National Recreation Area in southern Nevada—consistently ranked as one of the deadliest federal recreation areas in the country—were quietly suspended due to staffing shortages and a lack of equipment and training. The temporary suspension of the team—whose duties include recovering the bodies of drowning victims—was implemented without any public announcement in mid-May, according to a copy of the notification share…
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