Las Vegas Needs More Water: Tell Me Something I Don't Know

I know this blog appears to gives an undue amount of attention to Las Vegas and its "water issues" (i.e., they need more!).  For those of you who are not WWWs - Western Water Wonks -- it may be hard for you to fathom Las Vegas and its seemingly interminable quest for water. The Las Vegas area is rich, brash, and the economic engine for the entire state (most of you probably don't realize that gamblers graciously pay Nevadans' state income taxes). It is also growing, and growth means water, which means the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) and its General Manager, Patricia Mulroy.

Las Vegas, or more correctly, SNWA, is the "800-pound gorilla" of Western water, and Pat Mulroy is its keeper. Grown men who have faced down grizzly bears, rhinos, great white sharks, Bill O'Reilly, and Ann Coulter tremble and transmogrify into quivering masses of protoplasm when Pat Mulroy enters the room to talk water. When they leave the room, they've usually left something behind.

So I just had to post about a hearing that starts today in Carson City at which SNWA will make its case to pump more ground water from rural Nevada and pipe it to Las Vegas. The hearing will be conducted by the Nevada Division of Water Resources, headed by State Engineer Tracy Taylor. The hearing should last two weeks. You can blame Aqua Blog Maven and her Aquafornia blog, where I learned of this hearing and got the links.

Last  April I posted on the Spring Valley hearing, where SNWA received the state's permission to pump 40,000 acre-feet (AF) per year from that valley in east-central Nevada. This time SNWA wishes to pump about 35,000 AF annually from three valleys in Lincoln County: Delamar, Dry Lake, and Cave Valleys. The northern third of Cave Valley is in White Pine County.

The three valleys are in region 13 (see below) in the left "arm" that extends into White Pine County and lie along a N-S line with Cave Valley the northernmost, then Dry Lake, then Delamar. They are part of the larger Colorado flow system, a carbonate subsurface flow system that is linked to another flow system to the west, the Death Valley flow system (see figure below the map). When I was at the Desert Research Institute (1976-1989) my students - Steve Kirk, Jim Roth, Bob Byer, Bill Sadler, Tom Feeney - and I did a fair amount of work on these two flow systems. But it has been about 20 years since I was deeply involved in this work.

This figure, from a U.S. Geological Survey report, shows which of these subsurface flow systems are connected. The interconnection issue is important, because pumping in the three valleys could produce effects at some distance. Some people have expressed concerns over these effects.

You can read more about the hearing in the Las Vegas Review-Journal and Forbes. Here is more information from the SNWA WWW site.

The water from these valleys will supply about 120,000 homes, and will be brought to southern Nevada in the same pipeline that will bring the more distant Spring Valley water.

Aquafornia also led me to a couple of interesting videos about the Las Vegas "water grab" and the role of the U.S. Geological Survey:

1. Southern Nevada Water Atrocity from NoShootFoot
2. Political Science?

Can you spell h-y-p-e-r-b-o-l-e? Note the pitch for Indian casinos at the end of the first video.

"Gambling is just a way to redistribute resources from the dumber to the smarter." -- Unknown

Comments

[geohydro2011]

It never ceases to amaze me that cities pop up in arid and hot areas. How sustainable can that be? In this case, you have to import water? And when that source of water goes away, what then? Too, the energy required to cool cities in the often hot region--is that sustainable too? At some point, energy and or water will not be readily available to support such cities. Not that other cities in other climes don't consume energy or water--it's just that in some areas with moderate climates, there is, at present, an abundance of water to support cities. These resource problems will be exacerbated everywhere by population growth; but I think cities like Las Vegas, Phoenix, even Los Angeles are already under the gun so to speak.

[Tristan Johannesen]

I just moved to Las Vegas and have heard about the water shortage. What options are there for water storage in Las Vegas NV? I would really like to know as I want to work towards a solution.

[Frank Passarelli]

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Michael Campana

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[Michael Campana]

Thanks for your comment, Chris. I really enjoy your blog.

Many people demonize Pat Mulroy. The fact is, she does her job extremely well - too well for some. Land use ultimately drives water use, and she does not make land-use policy; the politicians do. But as long as the elected officials in southern Nevada buy into growth and more growth, she will find the water.

The state won't buck LV, because: 1) the southern Nevada delegation dominates the state legislature; and 2) the state knows who pays the bills (no state income tax). LV also has a powerful federal ally in Sen. Harry Reid.

Interesting aside: Reid even has an environmental research center at UNLV named for him.

The effects of pumping by SNWA in eastern and central Nevada ultimately could propagate to Death Valley (Furnace Creek Ranch) but it would take a "long time". I am unsure that anyone has a good idea how long it would take; we do not have a good quantitative understanding of the hydrogeology of the system.

Keep in mind that if SNWA gets its wish in the current hearing, they will be pumping 75,000 AF/year from the carbonate aquifer under the current NV DWR allotment. In terms of the total storage in the Death Valley-Colorado subsurface flow system, that is not a large amount. But that does not mean there will not be local effects.

Gees, rambling again...

[Aqua Blog Maven]

Patricia Mulroy is known as "the wicked witch of the South" to her opponents in central Nevada....

I, for one, don't mind you paying attention to this issue, as I think it is fascinating. One thing that doesn't get mentioned much is that part of this water is going to go to support Harvey Whittemore's "Coyote Springs" development, which is about 70 (?) miles north of Las Vegas, will have about 50,000 homes and ten golf courses. A new city, in other words. How nice that they will pump central Nevada to grow more grass in the desert...

I found this is a very interesting post. I wonder if, once they start pumping, the springs will dry up in Death Valley.

-Aqua Blog Maven