Question of the Day - 22 December 2022

Nevada has only recently been taking even a major portion of its allocation from the Colorado as per the Compact. In lieu of the actual water, Nevada has "banked" its allocations in recent years (that water actually went to CA and AZ) and as a result, its rights are senior in times of "deficit." (That's basically every year since the Compact was signed.)

So when the states start to fight over how to divvy up the remaining water, Nevada can reach out a hand and gently hold back CA and AZ, saying, "Um, we're withdrawing our banked allocation, sorry." Because Vegas's water consumption has been so low historically, Nevada doesn't figure to be affected by the current drought for two or more decades. Of course, CA and AZ are going to be that much more parched if and when NV takes its full share as well as withdraws its banked allocations. My guess is that all the new development is based on NV being able to do just that.

Simply put -- MONEY!
Not greed,just money!
Everyone needs to keep on making money or as some would say A Living.
Planning boards plan for more tax income to support the local government.
Contractors for continued existence in producing income.
Zoning commissions to maximize that income per acre.

WATER?
Caveat Emptor!
Water prices and restrictions increase.
Price increases and restrictions get passed on to consumers if it affected a business.
Home owners get screwed.
And the beat goes on!

While Kevin is correct in saying NV has held back a lot of water. It can only stop CA and AZ from taking it if it is there. Also I would almost bet that if it came down to it the Govt would demand NV give up some of that water if it was needed in other states.  

 IF.... the water thing gets as bad as many seem to feel it will.. don't even think that CA..AZ.. and the FEDS.. will say about any agreement...  "That was then.. this is NOW" and invalidate anything in "national interest".  NV should not feel protected period.

Several decades ago the head of the water authority noticed that more connections were being sold than water to support them so she put a moratorium on issuing new permits. Contractors exploded and complained to their bought-and-paid commissioners. Long story short -- the water authority lost and the big money contractors won.  The advertised philosophy from that point forward for the water authority was that controlling growth was the responsibility of the county, not the water agency.  Pity.

If growth continues at its current rate it’s just a matter of when “the you know what” hits the fan.  Will certainly be interesting when this happens.  Just hope the boys in charge don’t wait too long before they get there act together.

In the long run Common  sense or science will win.  Science  develops an affordable way to convert ocean water to safe potable water . Or common sense tells you don't have millions  of people live and farm in the middle of a  desert it is not sustainable 

every metro area in US is like this, they need the growth and new $ to sustain the present spending.  

It's just a matter of time before the 'easy' surface river water & ground water can't sustain demand in the southwest states. State senior rights? Right, just like other laws and rules today are conveniently ignored like thumbing nose at fed law creating 'sanctuary cities' for political gain. Nevada is also a tiny piece of it, there's a much bigger population in CA and AZ with what I believe has far more clout, $. Regardless, the writing on the wall is piping in water, desalination, recycle waste water via RO-sterilization directly back to tap like Orange County has been doing for a while now will be required. Eventually the far left loonies that run large parts of our gubermint and states like CA who resist common sense solutions like wide scale desalination will eventually have to face reality unless they demand close up shop in the southwest & tell people to move out and close all the casinos down to stay 'green' $$$. I'd say that's insane but with the far left, you never know.  

 Doc H- Since California has 840 miles of coastline and an untapped work force consisting of the homeless and illegal aliens, they should be able to immediately start construction of desalination plants in order to provide their unquenchable thirst for water. A win-win for all. That would allow the landlocked states to share in the water that is going to California.

David, I like your idea. Frankly love it. Win-win indeed for all. It allows illegal's to pay back the CA and Fed taxpayers the nice 'freebies', protections, and rights they get like 'free' health insurance and such that for some odd reason our family still has to pay for. And I know for a fact it's not nearly as good as the free ride they get with MediCal. oh well, following the rule of law is for suckers I guess these days, right? And I'm one of them suckers. 

The single biggest use of water in a residence is for flushing the toilet, the next biggest use is taking baths. If all homes and apartments removed bathtubs (had a shower only) and if they converted the toilet to a dry (waterless) style toilet millions of gallons of water in the city would be saved each year. Modern waterless toilets exist and work well enough to be considered in areas where water is scarce. And they have no more odor than an ordinary toilet. Your poop is about 75% water, and using water to remove the poop from your home to the sewage treatment facility is terribly inefficient. By drying your human waste in a waterless toilet system it is reduced to a much, much smaller size that makes disposal of it easier than the sanitary waste sewer system we use in cities today. Cities with plenty of cheap water will never change, but other cities like Las Vegas will eventually have to look at every alternative. 

Forgot to say, in the very crowded city of Hong Kong they are already using seawater to flush toilets. Newer built businesses and homes have two water pipes, one carries seawater for the toilet, the other is freshwater for everything else. This was found to greatly lessen the need for freshwater in a city with over 7 million people. Plastic pipes, ceramic and plastic toilets work fine with seawater, and seawater is limitless for a coastal city. Obviously this wouldn't work for Las Vegas, but it shows that the water shortage problem should be looked at in creative ways. Cities like Phoenix with large semiconductor factories use tremendous amounts of fresh water, that wastewater could be piped to area homes for use as toilet flushing. 

Here on the east coast where we only think we have water problems most new construction of public buildings use waterless urinals.  Imagine the millions of gallons of water that would be saved each year if all the urinals in the existing casinos were switched to waterless.  A place like the MGM probably has somewhere around 100 of them and each one uses approximately 1 gallon per flush. The savings would add up in a hurry.

The simple reason is that Las Vegas recycles its water, and any water that flows through the sewer system back to the wash is measured and is a credit to what is withdrawn. So it doesn't matter how long you shower, but the water district cares very much if you put that water on grass or in a business's evaporative cooler since that water just goes into the ether.