Las Vegas Strip Could Run Dry by 2021
by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles 
on 02.13.08
Image courtesy of http2007 via flickr
While the odds of winning it big in Las Vegas may still be (excruciatingly) low, the odds that the bustling Strip will run dry in 13 years are getting better by the day. A new study by researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography estimates there is a 50% chance the Strip will run out of water by 2021 if no significant cutbacks are made - and a 10% chance it could run out as soon as 2014.
Las Vegas currently gets most of its water - around 90% - from Lake Mead, one of the U.S.'s largest man-made lakes and reservoirs, which is located on the Colorado River. As Adam Tanner reports, Tim Barnett, a marine research physicist and a co-author on the study, believes climate change, evaporation and strong demand have all contributed to the problem. "The biggest change right now is taking more water from the bucket than we are putting into it," Barnett told Tanner.
How soon the water runs dry will depend on the natural fluctuations of the Colorado River, Barnett explained. Officials at the Southern Nevada Water Authority are scrambling to find alternate sources as they warily embraced the study's results; urban consumers alone shouldn't be made to bear the weight of higher conservation measures, a spokesman said, explaining that agriculture still accounts for a large proportion of the water's use.
Via ::Reuters: Las Vegas water source could run dry by 2021 (news website)
See also: ::Global Warming Will Worsen West's Water Crisis in Coming Years, ::Future Of Water In The US West: A Bleak Projection Of Climate Consequence
Follow @TreeHugger on Twitter & get our headlines with @TH_rss!
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
- Save Water in Your Garden: 5 Tips for Maximum Conservation
- 5 Reuses for: Watermelon
- Preserving the Harvest: Strawberry Balsamic Jam
- Dry Exfoliation: Great for You, Easier on Planet
- How Artificial Sweeteners Are Polluting Our Water
- Forget Going Green Because It's the Right Thing to Do—Go Green to Make Your Neighbors Jealous
I bet it won't.
Too much money at stake to close down. I would expect to see casinos using water reclamation tech and trucking in fresh, as they already do for the fountains.
Now, for the residents, that might be another story.
This story illustrates one of the difficulties in communicating climate change problems to the public.
This year happens to be looking like it's going to be a quite generous rain year for the Colorado basin, which probably didn't make it into this report. Hence, the inherent unpredictability of mother nature has already thrown a monkey wrench into the predictions. Granted, the report states percentage probabilities. These would now likely be shifted. However, if the shifts are relatively small compared to the confidence bands then it doesn't necessarily indicate anything inherently flawed in the analysis.
Unfortunately, the general public is reading news articles about possibly one of the wettest years recently for the watershed at the same time they're reading projections of doom from drought. It's easy to see why this stuff often gets confused in the public mind.
Stats from '04- Las Vegas is only allotted 300,000 acre-feet, while California and Arizona are allotted 4.4 million acre-feet and 2.8 million acre-feet respectively. Also, since the Colorado River flows into Mexico, they get a cut of the water usage.
To put those numbers into perspective, one acre-foot of water is about what's used each year by two households in Vegas. It takes about 100,000 acre-feet to raise the surface of Lake Mead 12 inches. And if the water level drops another 60 feet, Vegas will lose one of it's two intake pipes.
The seven entities utilizing Lake Mead just signed a new agreement in December to re-negotiate the water usage, and the Southern Nevada Water Authority is actively using restriction methods and investigating importing from other areas of the state, to include restoration of local yards in the area to a desert landscape.
And FYI, many of the properties downtown already use water reclamation and recycling efforts.
If the shifts are relatively small compared to the confidence bands then it doesn't necessarily indicate anything inherently flawed in the analysis.