In a word, yes. The water situation in southern Nevada and around the Southwest is getting a little desperate.
Lake Mead’s surface level, as of this writing, stands at 1,096 feet above sea level, the lowest in 44 years (it dropped to 1,092 in 1965 when much of the Colorado River’s water was being held back to fill Lake Powell. Lake Mead is expected to fall below that level in the next few weeks.
Then, if it drops another 17 feet, to 1,075, it will be the lake’s lowest level since 1937, the Mead was filling for the first time.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamations projects that the lake will drop below 1,075 feet in the next two years. However, that’s believed to be a highly optimistic outlook, which is based on average, water inflow. But over the past decade, the actual inflow has been 66% of average, due to severe drought conditions along the Colorado River watershed in the Rocky Mountains. During that time, Lake Mead has lost nearly half of its volume of water.
The 1,075 level is also the low-water mark at which a shortage in the Lake Mead water supply will be declared. It’s a legal threshold that would reduce the water Las Vegas can take from the lake by 13,000 acre feet a year (reducing the capacity by 26,000 households).
And 1,075 feet is the trigger level for the Southern Nevada Water Authority to vote on the eastern Nevada pipeline project. The pipeline, if built, would deliver groundwater it owns from Lincoln County northeast of Las Vegas, taking about three years to complete the first phase. The entire plan, which requires state approval (the hearings are set to begin in September 2011), includes the pipeline, pumping stations, and reservoirs and would deliver 134,000 acre-feet of groundwater from up to 300 northeast in White Pine County. It would cost upwards of $3 billion and would be completed in 2020.
Opponents of the plan claim the pipeline is a "Trojan horse" for a massive water grab to ensure unfettered growth in Las Vegas and that the Water Authority should focus on conservation and limiting development; farmers and ranchers in eastern Nevada also worry that the transfer of local water will impact their livelihoods and lives.
It’s possible that the shrinking economy will impose de facto limits on growth and development for the foreseeable future. It’s also conceivable that the a few wet years will postpone the necessity of tapping into water outside of the existing Lake Mead system. Still, if Lake Mead drops below 1,050 feet, 45 or so feet below the current level, the Water Authority will be forced to close off one of the two intakes that supply water to Las Vegas businesses and residents. And barring a miracle, look for the Authority to vote on the pipeline issue sometime this summer.
