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Lake Mead is shrinking -- and with it Las Vegas' water supply

Is Las Vegas even needed any more?

At one time it was thought putting a city out of the middle of a dessert to offer legalized gambling would bring in the masses. And it did. But now you can legally gamble downtown at the local Winn-Dixie with lottery pulls.
Las Vegas saw their unique legalized gambling becoming not so unique so they attempted to seek survival by offering entertainment for family and adults. This worked for awhile but nobody can exist without water.

Las Vegas will become a larger Reno . And when was the last time you ever heard of someone going to Reno for a vacation?
 
sawyerloggingon said:
I agree that putting this size of a city in the middle of a desert is a fools folly. On the climate thing though the leading theory of why the Anasazi culture ceased to exist was because of a 100 year drought in this same general area. That was just a bit before the internal combustion motor was built. The whole south west including Calif which is in drought conditions has been drying up for a very long time and if you take a look at all the dry lakes in this part of the US that becomes quite obvious.

"Mojave was a much cooler and less arid environment. Portions of what are now vast expanses of desert, were likely shorelines of lakes, streams and marshes, and plentiful vegetation and animal life.

As the climate became hotter and drier, the lakes dried up, the streams receded, and left behind isolated ground water fed springs that contain species found no where else in the world, or "endemic" species. "

Mojave Desert
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I'll tell you what these southern states really need to do, and that's instead of wasting billions in dollars on stupid liberal pet projects they should be spending it on finding an efficient way of turning salt water into fresh water.


Tim-
 
notquiteright said:
First thing the desert SW needs to do is stop exporting it's water to other states. Second thing to remember is it is a very arid climate and not well suited to be inhabited like it is a lush oasis in the desert. Third a prolonged drought might indicate climate change... :roll:
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The Desert SW does not own the Colorado river water. Never has.

This extreme winter this year, may debunk climate change.

Fourth, Lost Wages isn't the only place suffering from extended drought. Texoma is the area on both sides of the Red River separating Texas from Oklahoma. We have had record heat and prolonged drought to the point businesses don't want to relocate- even with the lower taxes and eager to work population. Local chambers and Quasi government committees who's sole job is to attract new business are getting no takers.
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Droughts along with extended wet weather is common and is nothing new. It has been going on for millions of years.

Wichita Falls Texas is trying to figure out what a stage 5 drought policy should be- mostly because stage 5 was, until now, unthinkable. Reservoirs are so low that local hotels and restaurants don't serve glasses of water because it is often off tasting and off color.
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Nothing new.

So this is a region wide drought, not just a playground in the desert's problem. Folks might be getting out while the gettin is good across the entire SW.
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Don't worry, like millions of years of weather, wet weather is on it's way.
 
Hicup said:
I'll tell you what these southern states really need to do, and that's instead of wasting billions in dollars on stupid liberal pet projects they should be spending it on finding an efficient way of turning salt water into fresh water.


Tim-
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Desalination is extremely expensive. It may provide some relief to urban Calif if they really conserve but I doubt the farmers will ever see it, that or a Calif strawberry will cost 10 bucks.
 
It's the golf courses. The biggest waste of space and resources known to man.
Cut off all the irrigation to all the golf courses in the south west, especially in Utah and Arizona, and Lake Mead will fill up again in a few short years.
 
Buck Ewer said:
It's the golf courses. The biggest waste of space and resources known to man.
Cut off all the irrigation to all the golf courses in the south west, especially in Utah and Arizona, and Lake Mead will fill up again in a few short years.
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Golf courses are a huge consumer of water but your claim is grossly exaggerated.
 
apdst said:
Deal with it, by either moving to where there's water, or figure out how to get water to your hood.
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It would be easy enough to move where there's more water. The difficult thing would be moving thousands of acres of trees and vines where there's more water.
 
In SoCal a full 25% of the water use is indoor urban use.

water-grey-fig2.jpg

Graywater - A Potential Source of Water,* UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability

My post about the incolet is serious. No water is used for this toilet nor the resulting sewerage since it burns the waste to clean ash. It uses very little energy and can be operated with NG or electricity. There is no reason to tap into sea water which would require extensive development time and still be costly at market (not to mention the environmental issues). Just switch out the toilets.
 
clownboy said:
In SoCal a full 25% of the water use is indoor urban use.

water-grey-fig2.jpg

Graywater - A Potential Source of Water,* UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability

My post about the incolet is serious. No water is used for this toilet nor the resulting sewerage since it burns the waste to clean ash. It uses very little energy and can be operated with NG or electricity. There is no reason to tap into sea water which would require extensive development time and still be costly at market (not to mention the environmental issues). Just switch out the toilets.
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Vegas is doing everything possible to save water but Meade is still expected to drop 20 feet this year. It is a losing battle.

"

Spurred by conservation efforts in Southern Nevada and elsewhere, per-capita water use on the Colorado River declined significantly while the West boomed over the past two decades.

A new report by the Pacific Institute shows per capita use fell by an average of at least 1 percent a year from 1990 to 2008, a period that saw the population in the Colorado River basin swell by more than 10 million people.

Some of the most impressive water-efficiency improvements came in the Las Vegas Valley, where individuals cut their use by roughly one-third while the population almost tripled.

"Southern Nevada has done very well. Their use has declined dramatically," said researcher Michael Cohen, who authored the report for the Oakland, Calif.-based environmental think tank.

"In 1990, the average valley resident consumed 347 gallons of water per day. By 2008, the last year included in the report, that figure had dropped to 248 gallons per day thanks in large part to several communitywide restrictions and incentives aimed at saving water.

As the valley's population boomed, the Southern Nevada Water Authority and its member utilities responded with assigned watering days and a ban on front lawns for new homes. They started paying residents and businesses to rip out thirsty grass and make other efficiency improvements.


Southern Nevada water conservation efforts heralded | Las Vegas Review-Journal
 
clownboy said:
In SoCal a full 25% of the water use is indoor urban use.

water-grey-fig2.jpg

Graywater - A Potential Source of Water,* UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability

My post about the incolet is serious. No water is used for this toilet nor the resulting sewerage since it burns the waste to clean ash. It uses very little energy and can be operated with NG or electricity. There is no reason to tap into sea water which would require extensive development time and still be costly at market (not to mention the environmental issues). Just switch out the toilets.
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I wonder just where they drew the line between northern and southern? In this area, the major impact of a drought is on agriculture, and any impact on agriculture is going to raise the cost of food for the whole country. \
 
Every golf course uses up to one million gallons a day. Southern California 600, Utah 117, Arizona 322, and Nevada 98.
Well over ONE BILLION GALLONS A DAY!
You don't think that would make a huge impact on the Colorado river?
 
The Colorado River, which cut the Grand Canyon, and supplies Lake Mead, hasn't reached the sea since the 1950's as all the water is used up.
 
Dittohead not! said:
It would be easy enough to move where there's more water. The difficult thing would be moving thousands of acres of trees and vines where there's more water.
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Grow new ones. There probably aren't many trees and vines in the desert anyway.
 
Buck Ewer said:
Every golf course uses up to one million gallons a day. Southern California 600, Utah 117, Arizona 322, and Nevada 98.
Well over ONE BILLION GALLONS A DAY!
You don't think that would make a huge impact on the Colorado river?
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I'm not sure just where you got those figures, but let's assume for now they're correct.
Flows of the Colorado river are in the order of 2,000 to 20,000 cubic feet per second. Let's take an average of 10,000 cfs to make the math simple. The next question is, just how much is a cubic foot?

Turns out to be 7.48 gallons.

So, 10,000 x 7.48 = 74,800 gallons per second on average.

60 x 60 x 24 x 74,800 = 6,462,720,000.

If your billion gallons a day figure is accurate, then, a little less than 1/6 of the water is being used for golf courses. That is assuming, of course, that those golf courses aren't using recycled water.

So, yes, given those conditions, the proportion of the water used for that purpose is significant.
 
Buck Ewer said:
Every golf course uses up to one million gallons a day. Southern California 600, Utah 117, Arizona 322, and Nevada 98.
Well over ONE BILLION GALLONS A DAY!
You don't think that would make a huge impact on the Colorado river?
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A million gallons?
 
apdst said:
Grow new ones. There probably aren't many trees and vines in the desert anyway.
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There are lots of them here in the desert called California's Central Valley. Our water doesn't come from the Colorado anyway, but from the Sierra Nevada snowpack, which is practically non existent even post the latest winter storm.
 
IIRC that region in general is becoming more hot and arid as of the past decade or so. Like many places in the world we are seeing resource issues and mass migrations as a result of climate change. FWIW though Las Vagas was always an opulent drain on resources anyway... a symbol of an ignorant era that's about to pass us by. It's kind of refreshing to know there is always something bigger than humans and it will make us change despite our best efforts.

Unfortunately I think the southern U.S. is about to get a lot hotter which is going to make it impractical to live there during this climate trend.
 
AlbqOwl said:
Why would you pull out that one phrase and leave off the short last sentence of my post that strongly qualified it?
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You asked...I answered.
 
Dittohead not! said:
There are lots of them here in the desert called California's Central Valley. Our water doesn't come from the Colorado anyway, but from the Sierra Nevada snowpack, which is practically non existent even post the latest winter storm.
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With the aquifers being depleted, the mighty San Joaquin's ag future is starting to look pretty dismal.
 
Dittohead not! said:
There are lots of them here in the desert called California's Central Valley. Our water doesn't come from the Colorado anyway, but from the Sierra Nevada snowpack, which is practically non existent even post the latest winter storm.
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I'm not sure what to tell you. Plenty of trees and vines growing here in Louisiana.
 
It'll have to be ripped out to grow the corn and soy (half America's total national food crop) which soon won't be able to be grown where it is now.
 
Many of the snow-birds will just keep going back to the Midwest and East where they came from during the summer.
The ones who "water" their lawns like back home.
And have permanently raised the relative humidity in cities like Phoenix .
Northern Light said:
IIRC that region in general is becoming more hot and arid as of the past decade or so. Like many places in the world we are seeing resource issues and mass migrations as a result of climate change. FWIW though Las Vagas was always an opulent drain on resources anyway... a symbol of an ignorant era that's about to pass us by. It's kind of refreshing to know there is always something bigger than humans and it will make us change despite our best efforts.

Unfortunately I think the southern U.S. is about to get a lot hotter which is going to make it impractical to live there during this climate trend.
Click to expand...
 
Northern Light said:
IIRC that region in general is becoming more hot and arid as of the past decade or so. Like many places in the world we are seeing resource issues and mass migrations as a result of climate change. FWIW though Las Vagas was always an opulent drain on resources anyway... a symbol of an ignorant era that's about to pass us by. It's kind of refreshing to know there is always something bigger than humans and it will make us change despite our best efforts.

Unfortunately I think the southern U.S. is about to get a lot hotter which is going to make it impractical to live there during this climate trend.
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Could have fooled me. This past summer was somewhat mild, and the current winter is about the coldest I can remember in some years.
 
I don't suppose over-irrigating for decades has helped, eh radio?
radioman said:
With the aquifers being depleted, the mighty San Joaquin's ag future is starting to look pretty dismal.
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Vegas tries to claim they recycle 94% of their water used.
The overall drought in the Southwest for decades has caught up.
The Ogallalla aquifer under Nebraska has taken a bit hit also .
 
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