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Leaking Las Vegas
What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas... apart from the water. As the following interactive chart from ProPublica shows, water usage in the greater Las Vegas region has more than doubled in the last 40 years and with the drought conditions, every reservoir is near record lows. Welcome To Las Vegas (while water supplies last).
Click here for large interactive version
Vegas Water History
1905 The Las Vegas Land and Water Company is formed to build and operate groundwater wells which the city then depended on for decades.
1922 The seven basin states sign the Colorado River Compact, estimating the river's annual supply at 18 million acre-feet of water and dividing 15 million acre-feet between the northern and southern states. The river would eventually prove to flow with just 14.8 million acre-feet a year.
1928 The Boulder Canyon Project Act authorizes construction of the Hoover Dam and split the water shares up between states. Nevada only gets 97.8 billion gallons, while California is given 1.4 trillion gallons, an imbalance that complicates relations to this day.
1941 A pipeline is constructed by Basic Management Inc., to take water from the Colorado River in Lake Mead and deliver it to Las Vegas for the first time.
1956 Congress passes the Colorado River Storage Project, authorizing the construction of some of the largest dams on the river, including Glen Canyon, Flaming Gorge, New Mexico's Navajo and Colorado's Aspinall Unit.
1963 Supreme Court settles Arizona vs. California, deciding a key aspect of Western water law and allowing Arizona, Nevada and California to withdraw unlimited water from their tributary rivers without counting it against their share of the Colorado River, further straining the system's supply.
1971 The first phase of construction on the Southern Nevada Water System is completed, enhancing Las Vegas' reliance on the Colorado River for its water.
1989 Seeking more water to support growth, Pat Mulroy and the Las Vegas Valley Water District quietly file 148 applications for water rights in rural counties north of Las Vegas.
1990 Las Vegas' daily water demand exceeds 300 million gallons per day.
1991 The Las Vegas Valley Water District receives a report warning the area will run out of water within five years. Pat Mulroy temporarily puts a moratorium on new building projects. Later that year the Southern Nevada Water Authority is formed, combining seven water districts in the Las Vegas Valley.
1992 The Water Authority gets permission from the U.S. Secretary of Interior to temporarily use extra water from the river, which for a few years flowed with more water than the states had divided up.
1994 Nevada's state engineer allows the Water Authority to take additional water from the Virgin River, water which would have otherwise flowed into Lake Mead.
1998 The Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act is passed, giving Nevada a say in how federal lands are sold and allowing Las Vegas to rapidly expand. The Water Authority gets a 10 percent stake in land sales, tying its revenues directly to growth.
1999 Las Vegas' maximum daily demand exceeds 400 million gallons.
2001 A year into the start of the drought, California, Nevada and Arizona agree to divide up surplus water from the Colorado River.
2002 The Water Authority completes a $2.1 billion tunnel to double the amount of water it can take from Lake Mead. That same year, drought ravages the basin. The Colorado flows at 25 percent of normal. Pat Mulroy throws out her 50-year water plan.
2003 Mulroy’s water authority pays Las Vegas residents up to $2 per square foot to rip out front lawns.
2005 SNWA decides to build a third, lower intake tunnel from Lake Mead to ensure it can, as Mulroy said recently, "take the last drop" when water levels fall.
2007 As drought drags on, the Colorado River basin states reach an agreement to divide water shortfalls between them in case water levels in Lake Mead drop below 1,075 feet, a trigger that signals a water emergency.
2012 The United States reaches an agreement with Mexico, which has long been entitled to nearly 489 billion gallons from the river, to allow Mexico to store some of its water for future use in Lake Mead. That same year the U.S. Bureau of Land Management comes out in support of the Water Authority's proposal to build a water pipeline from rural Nevada to Las Vegas.
2014 Pat Mulroy retires after 26 years as Las Vegas' top water official and having added significantly more water to the city's annual supply. But the city is in its 15th year of drought, and the Water Authority projects its water demand will continue to rise beyond what the city is currently capable of providing.
Sources: USGS, NASA/USGS Landsat, Google, U.S. Census, Las Vegas Valley Water District, Southern Nevada Water Authority, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Department of Justice, State of Nevada Division of Water Resources, Wyoming State Water Plan, U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management, Clark County Office of Public Communication.
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Better sell that Real Estate...
There's going to prove to be a finite amount of sewage that can be retreated.
Eventually this drought will pass, Lake Mead will once again be topped off and the party will continue.
Remember when the U.S. was capable of building aqueducts to move water around from regions of plenty to regions of scarcity?
<<< Why is America suddenly looking like a Mock Up Hollywood Wester Ghost Town?
<<< Ah who gives a shit, everything is just grand!
Bugsy Siegel's rolling over in hell. His Las Vegas will soon resemble those nether regions.
The City of LV is not the whole population picture. You need to look at the population of Clark County which will then include areas like “The Strip” (big hotels whose guest population is around 70k but never counted) and other cities like North LV and Henderson.
Clark County population 1970 around 277k 2013 around 2+ million
http://www.google.co.nz/publicdata/explore?ds=kf7tgg1uo9ude_&met_y=population&idim=county:32003&hl=en&dl=en
TO HELL WITH WATER! It's soooo boring. What Vegas needs is high-speed rail, and then all of their dreams will come true. Just ask California!
YES....it is just SOOOOO GREEN of California to plan for a high speed rail line that will incentivize, then subsidize people who want to live 200 miles away from where they work....to get too and from work....who cares if that is really the most UN-GREEN DECISION anyone could possibly make!!!
[quote]
...to allow Mexico to store some of its water for future use in Lake Mead. [/quote]
Perhaps Mexico should ask Germany about the location of their Bullion! Jehosaphat, they're even re-hypothecating H2O now!
Las Vegas population has quadrupled from about 150,000 to over 600,000. So if water usage has doubled in the same period doesn't that mean water use is MORE efficient now?
And reports from ProPublica? Every bit as reliable a source as Tass or Pravda.
You are thinking of Rome. The US Senate is far more corrupt than the Roman Senate ever was.
They had Caligula's horse and we had John Kerry-Kohn. Kerry-Kohn was later made Secetariat of State.
That was before our "representatives" decided we need to import millions of mestizos who breed like rats. We can handle natural population growth but not a third world infestation.
"Eventually this drought will pass, Lake Mead will once again be topped off and the party will continue."
Perfect, how much Vegas property are buying?
Red Rocks baby.
Pahrump, Art Bell territory
...when they pay for their water. Next month they'll be sucking the moisture out of wet naps and buring their waste in the backyard with most of California.
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Now the price is 200 Bitcoins a week. Inflation happens monthly now. Until then both Vegas and California stay bone dry.
Before or after Yellowstone pops?
Yellowstone is waking up. The signs are everywhere.
Trust in your government... lol.
Yeah that's another project.
Why would anyone go there? Let alone, live there.
Ninety-nine cent shrimp cocktail!
And 99% irradiated...thanks Japan!
99% shrimp fed sewage courtesy Thailand/VN.
I have a place in Vegas and this timeline didn't include the most recent development.
The plan is, get this. The Final Hole
They are drilling currently and expect to be complete with by next year a tunnel to drain Lake Mead from the center. They have tunneled almost all the way there already. Yes they plan is suck it bone dry if that is what it comes to.
So for Vegas problem solved for now.
The water issue is a fraud. They have proven they can raise the reservoir water level several feet in a day by closing off out flow. Someone is making money off this.
the southbound gates at the dam are always wide open, all this water is being dumped into the fucking ocean thanks to "Colorado pulse flow". they're still working on building new tunnels to help drain it even faster.. what a fucking joke
The Colorado River does not empty into the ocean. It dries up a number of miles before it reaches its historical delta, all of its water having been legally allocated among the States and Mexico, and fully drawn out of the river per those allocations. If the dam's gates are open as you have stated, it is because treaties require that a certain flow leave Lake Mead every day.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/colorado-river-delta-turned-green-after-historic-water-pulse-180953670/?no-ist
yet they fine people for watering their fucking lawn with water they PAY FOR?!?! LMAO
It's a FUCKEN desert .... Nothing more to add.
dam...dam...dam...
If I could get a government grant for about $10 million, I'm pretty sure I could turn sand into water.
Gold would be purtier,
but I think you have to start with straw.
I thought that was wine via the Elon Musk electronic low voltage reverse urination systems
1.4 trillion gallons for CA! TX got 35 trillion gallons of rain in May alone.
That was just God playing favorites...
Only Doubled in 40 years?
Success.
When the water stops running, they’ll start blame.
but we all know who’s behind this...
IT’S THOSE ALIENS AT AREA 51 I TELL YA!
"...Mexico, which has long been entitled to nearly 489 billion gallons from the river..."
Geez, is there any problem America has that isn't Mexican?
you bet ur azz.... it's called the fudgepacker
"1928 The Boulder Canyon Project Act authorizes construction of the Hoover Dam and split the water shares up between states. Nevada only gets 97.8 billion gallons, while California is given 1.4 trillion gallons, an imbalance that complicates relations to this day."
Did a little math last week, the Dardanelle Dam, on the Arkansas River was flowing 2 Trillion Gal Per Day.
Salton Sea Part II
Immigration has really grown Vegas and Nevada. And California.
POTABLE Water is going to be SCARCE in the near future.
California Doesn’t Have A Water SHORTage, It Has A Population LONGage (Pop 38.4 Million)
Overpopulation in the United States will become THE single greatest issue facing Americans in the 21st century. We either solve it proactively or nature will solve it brutally for us via water shortages, energy crisis, air pollution, gridlock, species extinction and worse.
U.S. population will double from 300 million to 600 million on its way to 1 billion in the lifetime of a child born today if we fail to change course.
- Frosty Wooldridge (2000)
The New Yorker had a good article on The Colorado River, et. al. on 5/25.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/05/25/the-disappearing-river
Interestingly, they say Vegas is in better shape than many other areas. Must be gambler's luck - if there is any...
Thanks, I hadn't seen this. Great read.
ODE TO VEGAS:
Fools rush in... -Elvis
Lordy, Lordy, I feel my temperature risin' - Elvis
Leava, Las Vegas! -Elvis
How long before Cirque du Soleil is forced to change the show “O” to “Sable”?
It’s going to be rough on those acrobats falling into the pool.
Macau has lots of water.
Nice headline....when have deserts not ever been in a drought?
Defintion of desert: "a region so arid because of little rainfall that it supports only sparse and widely spaced vegetation or no vegetation at all"
Tyler it's more of a crisis then you can even imagine! They have put out their reports and issued restrictions but like every other survey or report out there they seem to add Keynesian hope? I'll be happy to send you photos from the air of American River No. Fork and So. Fork, there are literally places you could walk across!!! This is usually full of White Water Rafters having the time of their life...Not today, this drought is one of the biggest stories in the world seeing how much food is produced in the San Jaquoin valley.. I was on Folsom Lake last night with my XP'S and let me tell you the situation is grim for June 9th Let's finally see how they deal with a crisis they can't control with I'M prepared are U?
Vegas is now becoming what it was always meant to be,namely,Hell on Earth..
Bernanke should be enlisted to solve the problem. Or Goldman. Where are you Ben???
Who is John Galt?
-Midas
Let that Jewish mafia shithole roast in the desert. If anyone cares to downvote me, feel free to look up the history of the city and casinos. Moe GREENE anyone? Yes I know he's a fictional character but it's based on real life fact. Though the names of the guilty have been changed, but not by much.
http://www.jewwatch.com/jew-capitalists-gambling.html
No water and the lights and air conditioning go out. This is going to be REALLY fucking fun to watch.
Hey, Lake Mead looks like a fractal
Have fun with your next Vegas hangover
"First time loser drinks whiskey,
second time loser drinks gin,
third time loser drinks anything cause he (still) thinks he's gonna win...
-Ooh Las Vegas by
Gram Parsons and Rik Grech
They'll be giving new meaning to the term "taking the piss."
Travelin' Gambler by The Range Hands https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ0gFHYuv8A
Jack 'O Diamonds by The Range Hands https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9iwf38h1bg
Las Vegas always was a gamble. And now they've lost.
Chinatown - Dying Of Thirst http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/294562/Chinatown-Movie-Clip-Dying-Of-...