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Las Vegas Is More "Screwed"; Drought Drains Lake Mead To Lowest Since Hoover Dam Built
Two weeks ago we highlighted just how "screwed" Las Vegas is due to the catastrophic drought that is occurring (combined with almost total ignorance that this is a problem). As Bloomberg's James Nash reports, about 55% of Nevada, already the nation’s driest state, is under “extreme’’ or “exceptional’’ drought conditions, the worst grades on the U.S. Drought Monitor; but recently the situation has got even worse. Lake Mead, the man-made reservoir that supplies 90 percent of the water for 2 million people in the Las Vegas area, has been reduced by drought to the lowest level since it was filled in 1937, according to the federal government who explained "It concerns us all very much," as it is a resource used by 3 states. Simply put, The shortfall is endangering water supplies to the residents and 43 million annual visitors to the driest metropolitan area in the country.
We discussed in detail just how dire the water situation is in Las Vegas here, but as Bloomberg reports, things are deteriorating fast...
Lake Mead, the man-made reservoir that supplies 90 percent of the water for 2 million people in the Las Vegas area, has been reduced by drought to the lowest level since it was filled in 1937, according to the federal government.
The lake, now at 39 percent of capacity, has been dropping since 2012, according to U.S. Bureau of Reclamation data, as much of the western U.S. has suffered the most serious drought in decades. The shortfall is endangering water supplies to the residents and 43 million annual visitors to the driest metropolitan area in the country.
Lake Mead, created by the Hoover Dam in 1936 and 1937, holds mountain snowmelt from the Colorado River for farms, homes and businesses predominately in southern Nevada, southern California and most of Arizona. No metropolitan area depends on the lake more than Las Vegas, which lacks groundwater or other local sources.
“This is significant because it’s a resource used by three states,’’ said Rose Davis, a spokeswoman for the bureau. “We all have to keep an eye on it because it’s the major water source for three areas. It concerns us all very much.’’
The lake’s surface, which reached a record high of 1,225 feet above sea level in July 1983, is now at about 1,083 feet, according to the bureau. If the level drops below 1,050 feet, one of the two intakes that feed water to Las Vegas will become inoperable. At 50 feet lower, the other would fail. Since 2008, contractors have been boring through rock to create a third conduit to draw water from as low as 860 feet.
About 55 percent of Nevada, already the nation’s driest state, is under “extreme’’ or “exceptional’’ drought conditions, the worst grades on the U.S. Drought Monitor, a federal website. Portions of California, New Mexico and Colorado also are in the “exceptional’’ category, according to the monitor.
Nevadans have cut back on water use since the magnitude of the drought became clear, according to data from the Southern Nevada Water Authority.
The region reduced daily usage 4.6 percent per person, to 124 gallons in 2013, from 130 gallons in 2012, authority spokeswoman Nicole Lise said by e-mail. In Los Angeles, personal consumption in 2013 was 129 gallons, according to the Department of Water and Power.
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As we concluded 2 weeks ago, the bottom line - get there now, watch the fountains, drink the water, swim in the lake... (and sell your house)
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I say sell Vegas to China. I hear they like ghost cities.
Did anyone get a picture of the Chinese Flag Flying over the Stratophere(needle) in Las Vegas?
50 Feet separate drought from Average and another 50 feet from full. Mead is 45 below drought level so perhaps another 5 feet which would be an all time low and we can call this new threshold "Desert" or "Desserted" [again]
Met a guy that retired with $50-$60K Pension
He drove a Red Mustang
I heard he retired to Las Vegas then ended up getting a job bar tending since the cost of living was sort of high. That would have been like 2003.
I think I heard that Mead might have been connected to some underground caves and aquifers.
-Who can profit here if there is water near Lake Mead, but they hype up the "Fear" about Water, then scoop up Real Estate, buy up apartments & houses & Buildings
-Then hire Bechtel, Suez, or Veola to Engineer the "Water Fix" and charge big time for housing & water in Las Vegas
Bullish on Vegas, Baby. They will find the fix when they are ready.
Neofeudal Las Vegas is a money maker.
Whether or not you are right is not the point as you definitely have a sensical playbook that would be a typical move by shrewd developers in the know, connected tooooo... oohhhh, I don't knoowww, maybeeee SATAN! or his boss the honorable Harry Reid.
Just another Global Warming liberal pansy eco-trrrsss story that doesn't tell anybody the OTHER side of the story!
You really think Las Vegas can't get water from the Pacific Ocean? You know why they can't? Because the goddamn liberals WANT Las Vegas to fail, that's why, because they hate success! There's plenty of goddamn water on this goddamn planet. If those goddamn good-for-nothing camel jockies can drink ocean water we sure the goddamn hell can!
I bet you that none of these problems would have happened if Romney was elected president.
Damn Liberals, always screwing things up.
Need a businessman solution:
1) Sue the dam builders. Who the hell builds a dam with the drain near the top? It should have been put near the bottom to get all the water!
2) Hire T. Boone Pickens to ship some of his Texas water over to help out. Tell him to bring Red Adair if he needs to.
Geeze, friggin losers. We need businessmen solutions.....
If they protect the supply to Los Vegas and the above dam supplied states it probably means they will have to reduce the flow out of the dam into the river causing power generation problems and reduced water for users downstream.
Now all they need is to discover shale gas/oil under Arizona.
There was hope for huge storms crashing into California and even carrying moisture out into the Colorado River basin and feeder streams. But once again the giant El Nino is faltering due to wind patterns in the Pacific. So the fix is not yet in. It is possible the winds begin to favor the El Nino, even super El Nino and that would send record moisture from teh Pacific plowing to SW USA. This is a hope. But perhaps the drought has gone too far, and even a rainy winter won't save Vegas.
According to Watts Up With That's ENSO update, the predicted 2014/15 El Nino has peaked and is already starting to fade. That's seriously bad news for the drought-stricken West. The storm track for the present is shoved way to the north by the combination of Typhoon Neoguri and the polar teardrop descending over the Midwest. A pretty impressive ridge of high pressure is building over the Interior Basin and Range, so unfortunately no rain for them but that which falls from the summer monsoonal winds and pop-up convective cells (which probably won't be much). The Front Range is looking a bit better, but Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas are still pretty screwed. I had high hopes for this El Nino, but it seems things are going to get even worse.
ENSO is looking unfavorable for what was a building El Nino. El Nino are normal but we have been in a cyclical down period for El Nino since the last big 90's El Nino. This La Nina favorable Pacific osillation has also been cooling favorable for temperature. The Pacific cycle is due to return us to a more normal El Nino and La Nina cycle. But this years El Nino may not form or be very weak. That would hold the drought conditions all across the US South West, and economically, the South West is nearing a crisis level. We badly needed a strong El Nino to release massive heat and thus moisture into the atmopshere and drive storms into the US South West. Still time though, so there is hope. Remember, it is a wet winter we are hoping to develope. July now, means still time.
Look at the bright side, I bet the fishing is a lot better.
RE market, not so much.
Yea I was fishing in the Colorado River when I sighted streams of dust rising coming down the river. As the dust clouds went passed where my line was cast I got a nibble. I set the hook and after a short fight landed a nice size desert catfish, but I had to throw him back, he was covered in seed ticks and sand fleas.
+1 Dune reference
Vegas has no water, but at least they have legalized hooking and slots, better than you can say for the rest of the land of the free.
Mmm, actually, prostitution is illegal in Las Vegas (and IIRC, Clark County). It's only legal in other parts of Nevada.
Do you mean to tell me the FED can't print water?
Assuming they are taking the entire region and dividing by the number of people. Add in all the golf course and ice for margaritas and that's allot of water.
FYI....Water for the goof courses come from recycled gray water and sewage water.... so if you play golf there, you're walking on fairways watered with somebodies' purified pizz......
High water usage per person is no doubt a result of high toilet flush rates due to residues of vastly excessive calorie consumption
Evaporative air conditioning.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evaporative_cooler
Imagine when, not only will you not be able to get water from a tap, but the AC shuts down. That'll be a riot!
Sorry to call BS on you, but 5 - 10 gallons a day is an almost impossibly low level of water consumption unless you're liviing a near neolithic lifestyle. For example...
Shower: 4 gallons (2 gallons per minute x 2 minutes)
Handwash dishes: 1 gallon
Drink: ?
Brush Teeth: ?
Toilet: ? (Just gotta hold it, even with efficient 1 gallon per flush)
etc...
In any case, the real big users of water is agriculture. As crazy as growing a giant city in the desert, growing crops in the desert is insane.
This is an average. Farms, manufacturing, commerce are all factored in.
Reminds me of the story of the German POW's held outside of Phoenix who escaped through a tunnel and built a canoe to paddle to freedom on the Salt River down to Mexico. When they got there it was dry as a bone.
No more Bellagio water show.
Jimmy crack corn and I don't care.
Actually I believe they get their water fron an underground aquifier to which they own rights. Regardless, a water show, golf courses, lush lawns, millions of new homes in a place that gets 4" of rain a year; what could possibly go wrong?
Vegas is now considering some hairbrained scheme where by, they would buy Mexicos 'Colorado River' water rights and in turn build desalination plants for Mexico off the coast of Baja Mexico.
hahaha. US, Mexico close to Colorado River water use pact
This is good for a laugh! $12 million emergency fix sought to ensure water flow from Lake Mead | Las Vegas Review-Journal
as of this comment, yours is the only place the word "emergency" appears on the board.
Just drink from bottles, geeze
"You live in a fucking desert!" - Sam Kinison
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0q4o58pKwA
Maybe we should start sending u-hauls to Vegas.
It bears pointing out that Sam was killed on his way to Vegas for a show by a drunk driver (with his new wife in the car with him).
The moral of that story could be don't piss off Vegas. But it could also be don't drive or even don't ever get married.
Maybe should just go with all three, to be safe.
Sam was not programmed for a long life.
Look, I'm no botanist, but I do know that if you put water on plants, they grow! Have they tried getting some water from the toilets?
Like, from the toilet?
you know, I started out this day in a bad mood. then, the mood improved, had some wins etc. Got home, all of that back to zero.
Then came across this and had a gooood chuckle.
From the heart, thanks!
Dust to dust. Vegas ain't what it used to be. Damn, I miss Binions !!!
As far as water goes, they need to drill to Ted Turner's aquifer.
Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water
"This book should be required reading for every high school student in the Western United States. It is key to understanding how these states obtained the water that transformed them from deserts to oases and encouraged multitudes to move westward."
Just finished "Not a Drop to Drink" another one about the use and politics of water.
The videos are on youtube - Cadillac Desert
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxdemRM96mc&list=PLBDD2CEE98D9DB860&index=1
Imagine Vegas with no ice cubes.
Oh, the humanity!
Well okay, but one should drink their single-malt scotch neat, as a rule.
Its a fake rule, if ever there was, and its one I break unless circumstance forces my hand.
single malt, or blended its MUCH better on clean, (not tap water) ice.
but that's just me
I'm guessing men claim responsinilty for this.
The Earth (or the sun) will shit us out in two seconds.
This article adds absolutely nothing further to the piece from two weeks ago.
It''s all so tedious and repetitive.
FAIL
Instead of Wynn comping "posh suites" for high rollers, (Chinese whales) he's going "all-out" and comping them cases of bottled water, and canned air from New Zealand.
Perfect chance to run my scheme. Depopulate the state except for the established Native Nations. Let them expand two fold. The rest of the state is turned into a park. Deconstruct all excess roads and highways, buildings, dams, every damn thing.
Nevada State Park. Authentic!
Think of the boost to GDP with the cost of relocation and the needed demolition. Bullish!
Call me when water is on the CME.
Cynical. Hope for more rain in the desert.
The locust come and devour land and all it has and then when it's all gone they die.
When they blow up the Hoover Dam only a trickle of water will flow. That's good news.
I got outta that shithole 15 years ago. nothing there but
dead souls inching along in Hyundais ready to cut your
heart out for one car length at the next light. The occaisonal
leased bmw for the 99% to lust after. dead..cold..sinister..
cynical..avarice in her heart. just like the escorts
According to the trolls it is all due to climate cooling :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=UU9-aSGgj7pVXFEnd-iFzVdA&v=3_cAO4ZZJjI
"You live in a desert!"
The truth never gets old ;-)
It is a fitting image to the fall of the Zoman empire
Phoenix is next.
If Obama wasn't President it would rain more.
Another manufactured crisis. They have pipelines for nat gas. Surely water is more important. Build a fvcking pipeline already !
https://dublinsmick.wordpress.com/2013/03/04/mountain-sinking-south-of-l...
I blame the Rat Pack.
They drank a lot.
and broken sprinklers.
Hubris
Perhas it's time to call (drum roll, please) the Mexican drug cartels. Word has it that they are the most sophisticated players in Las Vegas, the southwest, and everywhre else. They have learned how to turn supply and demand to their advantage.
Perhas it's time to call (drum roll, please) the Mexican drug cartels. Word has it that they are the most sophisticated players in Las Vegas, the southwest, and everywhre else. They have learned how to turn supply and demand to their advantage.
Almost no one boats on Lake Mead when they come to Vegas, so this isn't really a big deal.
Deadmau5 Friday night and NIN and Soundgarden Saturday! who gives a fuck! Can't wait. They can eat sand after I split.
http://www.8newsnow.com/story/24583435/idea-to-solve-lake-meads-water-sh...