Yes. The drought throughout the U.S. Southwest, which includes Las Vegas, is severe. It was ugly going into the "water year" Oct. 1, 2005, and it's even uglier now.
The current drought began in October 1999. Lake Powell and Lake Mead water levels were essentially topped off during the summer of 1999, but precipitation totals during the winter of 1999-2000 were 30% of normal, setting the stage for what followed: five years of precipitation and runoff so far below normal that it was the driest five-year period since record-keeping began 100 years ago. It was drier than the Dust Bowl conditions of the 1930s. In 2002, precipitation was 25% of normal; 2003 and 2004 were both below 50%. 2005 saw a bit of a recovery, but 2006, so far, has been bad.
Most of the Colorado River Basin, from western Colorado to southern Arizona, remained dry as a bone in the winter of 2006. Phoenix, for example, went more than four months without a drop of rain; it was the first time in history that Phoenix had no rain from November through February. Tucson was so dry that homeowners had to water cactus and other desert plants to keep them alive. To exacerbate an already dire situation, it was a warmer-than-normal winter and spring in the Southwest.
In the Colorado River water system -- a vast region that extends from Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Colorado farming communities along the Nebraska and Kansas borders down to New Mexico, southern Arizona, and into Mexico -- more than 30 million people depend on the river water.
In Las Vegas as elsewhere, it's now the seventh year of drought, believed to be the worst on record. Currently, the water storage capacity of Lake Mead is at 57%, which equates to 87 feet below the high-water mark (if you go out there, you can clearly see the thick white ring of mineral deposits around the perimeter, indicating the former water level). The water has dropped so far that the Lake Mead Marina, formerly situated in Las Vegas Bay, has been moved to Hemenway Harbor. Other marinas have had to move docks and slips.
Southern Nevada is currently under a stage-three "drought alert" (out of four stages; the worst is a stage-four "drought critical").
As one long-time resident commented on the southern Nevada water situation as it relates to growth, "I fear we've forgotten that we're living in a desert."
However, all is not lost. In the first place, all it takes is one or two good years of precipitation to emerge from drought conditions. Indeed, this year's extreme dryness and warmth in the southwestern U.S. are being blamed on La Niña, a weather pattern that sends more storms to the Northwest, but fewer to the Southwest. La Niña is reportedly responsible for the ferociously wet late winter and early spring in northern California and Nevada; up to 20 feet of snow fell in the Sierra Nevada in March alone and precipitation levels, currently, are 200% of normal. This one monster year, following a good haul last year, has ended the drought conditions in the area.
In addition, drastic water-conservation measures have been implemented. Since 2004, lawns in front yards have been banned in the Las Vegas area. (Standard Pacific Homes, a local developer, is currently installing artificial turf in the front yards of 77 houses in the Mountain Shadows subdivision in North Las Vegas.) In 1999, the Southern Nevada Water Authority launched a turf-replacement rebate program that pays homeowners $1 for every square foot of turf they dig up. In 2005, nearly 1.2 square miles of home lawns were torn up, for a total of $27.8 million in rebates; that accounted for almost 1.8 billion gallons of water saved. Water officials indicate that Las Vegas is six years ahead of schedule in terms of a conservation goal set by the water authority in the late 1990s.
And the water authority is working overtime to come up with alternative solutions to Las Vegas's dependence on Colorado River water (see QoD 02/15/2006).
