Articles / Ring of Dust

Lighter colored strata revealed by the decline in Lake Mead's water levels. For more on Las Vegas, read the city profile. Credit: Loop_oh/Flickr

For recent visitors to Lake Mead, NV, their abiding memory may be the "bathtub ring", a telltale sign of a lake now at 44 percent capacity. Exposed to a drought which began just over a decade ago, the artificial lake formed by the construction of Hoover Dam and most recently famous for its role in the movie Transformersis drying up: the Scripps Institution of Oceanography now gives it a fifty-fifty chance of surviving past 2021.

A casual observer, pausing to absorb the exuberant splash of the Bellagio fountains display, could be forgiven for thinking nearby Las Vegas is largely to blame. However, bucking it's devil-may-care image, Southern Nevada possesses an aggressively conservationist Water Authority. There are mandatory watering schedules and stiff penalties for anyone heedless with H2O: Fees double after every violation. Peer pressure plays a part too, with scofflaws subject to neighbors reporting them online. 

Yet, Las Vegas' approach also includes some carrots with the sticks. Valley residents are strongly encouraged to convert wasteful landscaping to a 'xeriscaped' equivalent through a rebate program for each square foot of grass replaced with water-efficient landscaping. Among the favored species in an approved garden may be found Texas Ranger, Lantana and Weeping Acacias interspersed with Pink Indigo bushes and Star Jasmine.

 As a result of these regulations and incentives, the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) claims that annual water consumption fell by nearly 26 billion gallons between 2002 and 2009, even though the population rose by 400,000—not to mention the 40 million who paid a visit. But, with the region gripped by what the SNWA call "catastrophic"  drought since 1999, Sin City is in a diabolical fix, under pressure to conserve quickly and running out of places to quench its thirst. 

The real problem for Lake Mead, nearby Lake Powell, and the Colorado River—source of nearly 90 percent of Southern Nevada's water—is the Rocky Mountains' diminishing snowpack. "What's really been frightening," warns Pat Mulroy, "is not necessarily the lack of snowfall: it's the sublimation: the air is so dry that it evaporates...last year Lake Powell was 16 feet lower because of sublimation."

Lake Mead's level is the key indicator: should its surface decline to 1,075 feet above mean sea level, or "Elevation 1075", water rationing will kick in for the seven states of the Colorado River Compact. At the time of writing, we are at Elevation 1098. The level peaked at 1225 in 1983.

Not everyone is inclined to believe purely natural forces are in play. Speaking to Nevada Public Radio in February, activist-attorney Simeon Herskovits claimed public opinion was being manipulated: "the game that's being played with the levels of Lake Mead is largely the result of purely management decision-making processes that the SNWA plays a lead role in, namely raising the level of Lake Powell  at the expense of Lake Mead and manipulating the flow levels in the Colorado River.  

SNWA chief Patricia Mulroy retorted that this assertion was "patently irresponsible", offering by way of proof that she had no water-level management powers over Lake Powell, which  is located on the Utah-Arizona border.

Mulroy's defense, though only partial (SNWA most certainly has an official role in managing the levels of the more important Lake Mead) is rooted in a frustrating impotence for the Silver State: When the Colorado River Compact (of the seven states through which the river runs) was created in 1922, a city of 1.8 million souls in the Las Vegas valley was inconceivable and so Nevada featured only as a minor player, one barely touched by the river's waters. The 1922 Law of the River got one other element badly wrong too, underestimating the sheer dryness of the Southwest.

The Alternatives

So what's a thirsty state with negligible groundwater resources to do? 

One option is to dig. Right now about 10 percent of Southern Nevada's needs are met by pumping  groundwater within Clark County, which occupies the familiar triangle at the bottom of the State. But the aquifers beneath Clark are insufficient—especially in light of the Colorado's troubles—and so the SNWA, since 1991, has been busily buying up and buttressing water claims for hundreds of miles around.

That work has culminated in a proposed pipeline running  285 miles north from Las Vegas to a cluster of pumping stations in Snake Valley, a large area straddling the Utah-Nevada border. However the pipeline project has met stout resistance—and accompanying legal wrangles—from a variety of interests in Snake Valley counties. Local ranchers, hydrologists, and environmentalists have voiced concerns, citing the risks to endangered species and to local water-tables (and livelihoods). 

Central to these objections is the science of Great Basin aquifers: Much as SNWA might wish otherwise, the extent to which they are connected remains unknown. As was the case with the controversial Yucca Mountain project, both sides appeal to scientific evidence which, taken en masse, only goes to prove how little we know on the subject.  Even the Lake Mead situation produces wildly variant science: We have seen Scripps Institute of Oceanography argue the strong possibility of Lake Mead vanishing by 2021 while hydrologist Professor Balaji Rajagopalan, of the University of Colorado, claims that water supply from the Colorado River will be safe "at least until 2026."

Barry Nelson, senior policy analyst for NRDC's western water program notes another option: “Nevada receives a small proportion of water from the Colorado River, under the Colorado River Compact.  Las Vegas could try to purchase additional water by paying for conservation in other states.  That, however, presents its own challenges, as each state in the basin jealously guards its share of what appears to be a shrinking river.”   A fourth option would be for Las Vegas to manage their growth more aggressively.   

For now—with growth slowed in Las Vegas—the crisis has somewhat diminished but, sooner or later, hard decisions will have to be made: "We took water for granted," Pat Mulroy told me. "We turned the tap on, it came out. We never thought twice about it. This next generation are really going to start having to look at their water use in a different way and part of it is simply the enormous population explosion that w're going to be experiencing in the next forty years" 

Remember Elevation 1075? When Lake Mead drops to that mark, the Colorado River States start rationing—and the SNWA, vows Pat Mulroy, starts drilling. If she gets her way the question becomes: is there even enough water under the Great Basin to keep Nevada and its neighbors alive?

"What's happening in Vegas is a wake-up call for the rest of the country," says Robert Glennon, author of Unquenchable. "When you throw the impact of climate change on the Colorado, then you've got a train wreck."

If ever there was a time to look again at water use in your community, that time is now.

What You Can Do

Whatever your climate, water is an issue that you can positively impact at the household level.

• Turn off the lights, advises Robert Glennon. "Researchers at Virginia Tech have found that a single 60-watt bulb that burns twelve hours a day may, by the end of the year, consume as much as 6,300 gallons of water." (A typical thermoelectric plant, using fossil fuel, takes just under a quarter of a fluid ounce to produce a single BTU of power. Just over 1,000 of these BTUs yields a KiloWatt hour.)
• Educate your children in water conservation through practical example, says Southern Nevada's water chief Pat Mulroy: "You're brushing your teeth? Turn that water off. And don't let your shower run for five minutes before you get in"
• "Know how your local community treats its water, discharges its water, and then adapt to the area you are living in," advises Pat Mulroy. "If you have a garden, make sure the landscaping is harmonious with the climate you are living in."
• Favour appliances with smart water use features when purchasing: EPA Energy Star rated washing machines and dishwashers consume a fraction of the water of older appliance. Low-flow showerheads and toilets as well as aerators for taps can also significantly reduce water consumption.
• Avoid treating the water in your home with salt products, which can create troublesome saline pockets further down the community water chain. There are magnetic options for taking the hardness out of water: unfortunately the science is not settled in this area: Prof. Martin Chaplin of London South Bank University has a useful overview.
• Another tip from Robert Glennon: "Stop using, to the extent possible, your kitchen food disposal. A water conservation group in Tuscon found that, even if you have an aerator on your kicthen faucet, if you use the food disposal two minutes a day then, by the end of the month, you will have used 150 gallons of water."
• If you live in Southern Nevada, the  Water Smart Landscapes program offers practical ways to lighten your water load.

See "Before the Well Runs Dry" for more ideas