Freshwater Use in Las Vegas

When I mention ‘Las Vegas’, what comes to mind? What comes to my mind are impressive displays of fountains and magical bursts of water in a city that was built in an arid desert, but I also think that it is such a waste of water. 

 

 

Personally, I cannot put it any better than Tim Barnett (ScrippsInstitution of Oceanography): “It’s just going to be screwed. And relatively quickly. Unless it can find a way to get more water from somewhere Las Vegas is out of business. Yet they’re still building, which is stupid”.
In this blog, I want to explore where Las Vegas derives their water sources, how much water is used, and the impacts on these water sources.

Las Vegas City has a population of more than 600,000, but the Las Vegas metropolitan area accounts for more than 2 million people, and the population size is projected to increase to more than 3 million by 2042 (World Population Review, 2016). The large increase in population for the metropolitan area results in large demand and pressure for more water resources in an arid environment, thus misbalancing the demand and supply of water that the catchment can provide (Salvaggio et al., 2013). 

The Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) derives their water sources from the Colorado river which flows into the Lake Mead reservoir behind Hoover dam, providing 90% of the water to the metropolitan area, however the Colorado river flows are declining due to droughts and climate change which is proving to be a huge challenge for water resource management with an increasing population and an expansion in the urban area (Salviaggio et al., 2012). Because of the decline in river flows, Lake Mead reservoir water levels has fallen to an all-time low of 1080 feet above sea level in the last 78 years (Icenhower and Dhar, 2015). Las Vegas uses up to 219 gallons of water per person per day and experiences an annual average of less than 13cm of rainfall (Dawadi & Ahmad, 2013). Hence, the combination of low rainfall levels, declining water levels, drought and climate change and an increasing population requires serious management and conservation plans if Las Vegas would hope to reduce the threats to their water security in the near future.

SNWA decided to build a third intake pipeline as a precaution to declining lake levels so that water can still be supplied to the city even if Lake Mead continues to decline to its lowest-record water levels (Locher, 2015). This does not appear to be a sustainable method to address the water decline, but rather a back-up plan which attempts to delay serious environmental concerns whereby the continued consumption of water from Lake Mead will eventually drain the entire reservoir. Furthermore, a $650 million pumping station will be built by 2020 to reach and draw water from the deepest depths of Lake Mead as an alternative water source to the declining Colorado river flows. Interestingly, declining river flows and lake levels should be a clear sign that the management of water resources in this catchment and its regeneration should be the number one priority. But instead, the SNWA committee and board chairwoman Mary Beth Scow insists that further pumps and pipes will need to be built to ensure a constant water supply to the city to further support the strong Nevadan economy (Walton, 2014). Castle et al. (2014) notes that while increasing demand would be placed on groundwater reservoirs in the Colorado River basin, these groundwater sources will not be able to meet future water demands and thus the long-term security of water will be significantly threatened.

Clearly, supply-side management policies can insofar provide a sustainable level of water supply into the city and so alternative methods. Dawadi & Ahmad (2013) suggests that a combination of water conservation and better pricing policies will enable water supplies to last longer into the near future. This study modelled conservation and policy scenarios to determine which methods would reduce demand for water. They found that both indoor-outdoor conservation practices such as managing water appliances (indoor) and converting turn grass into desert landscape (outdoor), and a price rise of water consumption by 50% had reduced water demand by 35% for 2035. These results are ideal for water conservation, but given that they are only model predictions, it may not translate very easily into management plans and practice. Indoor and outdoor conservation can be easily adopted whereas people may not agree or be willing to pay more for their water. Although, Salvaggio (2013) found that when people are knowledgeable about drought conditions and value the environment, then they are more supportive of water price increases.

Concluding thoughts:

Personally, I feel that a city like Las Vegas should not exist due to the impractical demands for water in a desert, which I believe to be a wasteful and unnecessary allocation of water resources. However, given that it still exists and it is unlikely that the city will be demolished just to conserve water, management policies and conservation is crucial for the future water security of the city and its inhabitants. Both demand and supply side policies should be considered so that the sustainability of water use can be fully maximised.

I would like to highlight an article by Jennifer Robinson in the Las Vegas Review-Journal (2015), who interestingly believes that there is no water crisis in Las Vegas because the city already has an effective management strategy in place, and so encourages the growth and expansion of the city. In contrast, the former general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority (in the video below) explains that Las Vegas is indeed facing a crisis and that the impacts of climate change can worsen this crisis. I implore you to read the article and watch the video, and determine for yourself if Las Vegas is using water sustainably and if Las Vegas can continue to expand economically and in population size with regards to water supply.