[SandyCo]

I saw this interesting article in the L.A. Times today. There seems to be a real danger of Las Vegas losing its main water supply.

Drought -- and neighbors -- press Las Vegas to conserve water - latimes.com

[LuisSuarez]

No danger at all. Plenty enough water in the Lake for our needs

[sargentodiaz]

It all comes down to building megalopolises in areas where they were never meant to be!!!

The prophecy to turn the desert into a blooming garden is all well and good - and would probably be great for the environment. But, where to get the water? The biggest users of water from the Colorado watershed are California and Arizona. California has an amazingly extensive source of water - the Pacific Ocean. Investment in desalinization plants along the coast would go a long way to solving a whole lot of problems.

[MSchu]

we live on a water world... I am no scare

[jtjtjtjt]

Originally Posted by SandyCo

I saw this interesting article in the L.A. Times today. There seems to be a real danger of Las Vegas losing its main water supply.

Drought -- and neighbors -- press Las Vegas to conserve water - latimes.com

A few snippets and my comments and questions from that article:

>>His research concluded that without massive cutbacks in water use, Lake Mead had a 50% chance of deteriorating to "dead pool" by 2036. That's the level at which the reservoir's surface drops beneath Las Vegas' lowest water intake.

So what's the problem? Considering the fact that a lot can happen in 20 years, those look like good odds to me. A pipeline from Canada or northern Nevada could happen (it's a political problem, not an engineering problem). Or Elon Musk could grab a comet and float it down into Lake Mead if you give him 20 years to do it.

>>The real water hog is not people, many say, but grass: About 70% of Las Vegas water goes to lawns, public parks and golf courses.

I wish that number was broken down a bit better. Lawns suck. If you want to grow stuff, move to Nebraska. This is playland, not farmville. IMHO, of course. (yes, I've read the gardening in vegas threads and expect to be told that I'm an idiot.) Golf course water usage, I'm OK with that. Fits the playland theme. Parks are OK, could ease the pain of losing your own personal patch of lawn.

>>The water authority is pushing forward with a plan for a 300-mile pipeline to import water from the state's agricultural heartland.

Really? Nevada has an agricultural heartland? Or do they mean California's agricultural heartland?

>>charge much more for water and punish abusers with precipitously higher rates;

well, duh! It's the desert, water should be expensive.

or maybe turn las vegas into Tank Town. Tank Town - Rainwater Collection Since 1994! Ordering a case of Cloud Juice now, sounds refreshing.

[winter-rabbit]

I totally agree. People should not have grass lawns for their personal property. I am coming from the Northeast, and I totally get the whole ideal of converting to desert scapes. Gives me a lot less work to maintain the lawn! If I decide to plant grass, it will be some ornamental fountain grass in a pot!

Originally Posted by jtjtjtjt

A few snippets and my comments and questions from that article:

>>His research concluded that without massive cutbacks in water use, Lake Mead had a 50% chance of deteriorating to "dead pool" by 2036. That's the level at which the reservoir's surface drops beneath Las Vegas' lowest water intake.

So what's the problem? Considering the fact that a lot can happen in 20 years, those look like good odds to me. A pipeline from Canada or northern Nevada could happen (it's a political problem, not an engineering problem). Or Elon Musk could grab a comet and float it down into Lake Mead if you give him 20 years to do it.

>>The real water hog is not people, many say, but grass: About 70% of Las Vegas water goes to lawns, public parks and golf courses.

I wish that number was broken down a bit better. Lawns suck. If you want to grow stuff, move to Nebraska. This is playland, not farmville. IMHO, of course. (yes, I've read the gardening in vegas threads and expect to be told that I'm an idiot.) Golf course water usage, I'm OK with that. Fits the playland theme. Parks are OK, could ease the pain of losing your own personal patch of lawn.

>>The water authority is pushing forward with a plan for a 300-mile pipeline to import water from the state's agricultural heartland.

Really? Nevada has an agricultural heartland? Or do they mean California's agricultural heartland?

>>charge much more for water and punish abusers with precipitously higher rates;

well, duh! It's the desert, water should be expensive.

or maybe turn las vegas into Tank Town. Tank Town - Rainwater Collection Since 1994! Ordering a case of Cloud Juice now, sounds refreshing.

[MountainBiking]

From the article:

"The real water hog is not people, many say, but grass: About 70% of Las Vegas water goes to lawns, public parks and golf courses. A rebate program has already ripped out 168 million square feet of grass, enough to lay an 18-inch-wide roll of sod about 85% of the way around the Earth."

Grass is a water hog pretty much anywhere in the west and southwest. Here in my city in So Cal where we're also experiencing drought conditions in a dry and hot climate (Inland Empire) people still continue watering their lawns every day. My city continues putting in grass in parkways and people who buy brand new constructed homes run their sprinklers more than people with older/existing homes to keep the "newness' alive. Lawns are definitely a brutal water waster. I've shrunk my overall grass footage by 30% just this last winter and I'll do more within the next 2 weeks. It's an expense BUT it needs to be done.

-Cheers.

[Kitchen Witch]

Originally Posted by SandyCo

I saw this interesting article in the L.A. Times today. There seems to be a real danger of Las Vegas losing its main water supply.

Drought -- and neighbors -- press Las Vegas to conserve water - latimes.com

Drought hurts everybody. A lot of the water from the Colorado River is used for irrigation in Southern California for agriculture.

I think EVERYBODY, both in So. California and Las Vegas, should conserve this precious resource a bit better. I see people on my street, washing cars with the hose 2-3 times a week and people who never repair broken and gushing sprinkler heads!

Stories like this from last year, are just another example that EVERYONE should be conserving water


As Lake Mead shrinks, California uses more than its share of water | Las Vegas Review-Journal

[ft_chief]

I always report water waste that I see in my neighborhood. Especially over watering abuses with flooding the streets. Each incident has been resolved by SNWA and City of North Las Vegas. Now I don't see flooded intersections when I take my kids to school every day.

[lvoc]

Originally Posted by SandyCo

I saw this interesting article in the L.A. Times today. There seems to be a real danger of Las Vegas losing its main water supply.

Drought -- and neighbors -- press Las Vegas to conserve water - latimes.com

There tend to be much incorrect information on this subject. Las Vegas for instance is a very small user. The big ones are agriculture in CA and AZ. And certainly one of the problems is CA Agricultural water is sold for less than 10% of the wholesale price of water in Las Vegas.

A large part of the problem is driven by the peculiarities of western water law. The first user of a water source has priority in the use of that water source. The Colorado Compact in fact modified that distribution but still gave priority to CA agriculture over the municipal use elsewhere.

Other things display a lack of knowledge. Lake Las Vegas for instance is filled by the use of some very premium water rights that were provided by the federal government in order to gain control of some substantial provide holdings on Lake Mead. There is no way actually that SNWA or even the state of Nevada can modify those.

And there are other interesting anomalies. SNWA acts like water price increases with usage. And that is true for any given customer. But what they don't point out is that meter size has a large effect on the cost of water and that leads to people with large usage and meters paying way less per gallon than people with small meters.

Las Vegas does need the third straw. That is one of the things Pat Mulroy screwed up. The second straw could have been placed where the third straw is located at a great savings. But this should all work out.

When push comes to shove it is very unlikely that Las Vegas will be in trouble. It is simply the most up stream of the users. For Las Vegas not to pump would imply that the entire Colorado system is down. That would be an earth shaking event that is difficult to contemplate. It would require some form of natural catastrophe or misfeasance by the government of an unbelievable level.

I would think that Las Vegas has to go for the pipeline even if it costs billions and takes decades. The problem is that it is a one shot. If you don't take it now you never will.

Desalinization in CA is often seen as a potential solution. The rub though is CA does not like to build industrial structures on their ocean front. Perhaps in Baja. But I would not hold my breath.