Question of the Day - 28 July 2017

If you're accustomed to water on demand in the Great Lakes region, you might want to think twice about moving to Las Vegas, where H2O is rationed.

Unless your lawn is grandfathered, no new turf is allowed in front yards. New turf in side and rear yards may not exceed 50%, or 100 square feet, whichever is greater. Total turf of more than 5,000 square feet is prohibited. Also, vegetation is subject to a watering schedule. Ordinances are in place to penalize Las Vegans deemed to be wasting water.

As a side note, the water that comes out of your Las Vegas tap is high in minerals and can be milky on occasion. So you’ll probably want to invest in some water filters for your faucets or in bottled water from your local grocery store. (Prior to legalized marijuana, purified water has been Las Vegas' "cash crop.")

According to the National Park Service, 25,000,000 people rely on Lake Mead for their water and “it is unlikely that the Southwest could have developed as it has without it.” However, protracted drought and population growth in the area have caused the water table to fall 131 feet since 1999. The lake is further handicapped by a high propensity for evaporation. 

In 2015, Lake Mead made headlines when the water level hit a record low of 1,080 feet. The following year it was lower still — 1,074. 

Though the winter of 2017 was a good snow year in the upper Colorado Basin for infill of lakes Powell and Mead, for the time being, Lake Mead continues to flirt with danger, with the Bureau of Reclamation predicting it would top out at 1,078 feet this year. One good snow year barely erases decades of drought. However, the Southwest is continuously adapting to the changing conditions with such strategies as conservation-based incentives, technology, and pricing. 

Another coping mechanism is the so-called “third straw,” a water intake that taps into Lake Mead 860 feet below the surface. This huge tunnel enables access to the last drop of Lake Mead water in the absolute worst-case scenario. The pipeline was uncapped in September 2015 and a pumping station is scheduled for completion in 2020.

Some would say the three-mile tunnel is long overdue. In 1971, when Las Vegas began tapping Lake Mead as a water supply, it had only 126,000 residents, a number that has swelled to two million and growing — Las Vegans who are learning to cope with the reality of a finite water table.

A comeback by Lake Mead isn't impossible; look what has happened to Lake Tahoe since last October. But Mead has fallen so far from its greatest depth, 1,229 feet (a total of 155 feet, with 50 of those feet lost over the last 36 months) that an imminent return to the halcyon days appears distant.