LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Rising temperatures, diminished rainfall and steadily increasing usage have taken a serious toll on the Colorado River and the water it contains. Some question whether the Las Vegas Valley will have enough water to last into the future.
Recently FOX5 Chief Meterologist Sam Argier sat down with a panel of water experts to find out whether they’re confident, cautious or concerned about the reliability of our water supply over the next ten years.
Population growth drives water demand
The Las Vegas Valley has relied on the Colorado River for water since 1971, when the first large diversion supplied the municipal area. Before that, groundwater supplied the community until the early 1970s, according to Zane Marshall, director of water resources for the Southern Nevada Water District.
The valley’s population has grown from less than half a million people in the early 1980s to more than 2 million today. With additional population moving to Las Vegas, the community needed to provide additional water and turned to the Colorado River.
“Through the 80s and the 90s, we continued to use more water,” Marshall said. “And we’ve developed more infrastructure to be able to access our full allocation on the river, which is 300,000 acre feet per year.”
In the late 1990s, water managers saw the potential to exhaust that supply and began implementing conservation measures in Southern Nevada. By 2002, the valley was using more than 300,000 acre feet per year, exceeding its Colorado River allocation.
Megadrought creates new challenges
The Western United States has been in a megadrought since about 2001, according to Dr. Matthew Petrie from UNLV’s Dryland Ecohydrology Lab. Megadroughts are defined by their severity, geographic extent and duration.
“While the Western United States or Colorado River Basin has not…Not all locations have individually experienced a drought in every single year since 2001. Over the geographic region, there has been a paucity of precipitation and especially snowfall in the Western United States Colorado River Basin,” Petrie said.
The current climatological consensus is that the region is entering a period where dry conditions, snow droughts or warm season droughts will be more common in the future.
Water allocation dates to 1922
Nevada shares the Colorado River with six other states under “The Law of the River.” The Colorado River Compact was created in 1922 when seven basin states came together to avoid litigation over water allocation.
“A lot of what was allocated were based upon hopes and aspirations about where growth was happening, agricultural growth, ranching, as well as municipal growth,” said Tom Romero, professor at UNLV Boyd School of Law.
Nevada ended up getting the smallest percentage of the allocation of the Colorado River. The compact was based on hydrologic projections that were overly optimistic, and from the beginning, water has been over-allocated among all basin states.
Conservation efforts show results
The Southern Nevada Water Authority was formed in 1991 as a collaborative entity to manage the region’s limited water supply, which represents only 1.8% of all water allocated on the river among the seven basin states and Mexico.
Conservation measures implemented since the early 2000s have shown significant results. The valley has reduced consumptive water use by 35% and gallons per capita per day by 55% while adding over 800,000 people to the community.
“We’ve essentially decoupled water demand and population growth by becoming much more efficient and by focusing on those outdoor consumptive uses,” Marshall said.
Current restrictions and future planning
Today, about 45% of the water brought into the valley from Lake Mead is used indoors and returned to the river after treatment. The remaining 55% is used consumptively outdoors for irrigation and evaporative cooling.
Current restrictions include seasonal watering schedules, no turf in front yards of new developments, and only 50% of backyards can be turf. New golf courses are prohibited, and evaporative cooling for commercial uses is no longer allowed.
Lake Mead levels remain critical
Lake Mead currently sits at approximately 1,065 feet elevation, about 30% of full capacity. Full pool is 1,224 feet and dead pool is about 900 feet. The lake is about 100 feet higher than it would be without conservation measures undertaken by Arizona, California and Nevada.
At dead pool, Hoover Dam cannot release water downstream to Arizona, California and Mexico, and it stops producing power. However, Nevada would still be able to access its water supply through a lower intake completed in 2020.
States negotiate new agreements
The seven basin states are currently locked in negotiations over a new conservation deal. Each state knows they need to use less water, but no one wants to feel the pain of deep cuts.
“We’re coming up to the end of a series of operating agreements between the basin states about the allocation of water, particularly between the lower basin states,” Romero said.
The federal government has suggested allocations between the upper basin and lower basin while encouraging states to continue negotiations for operating agreements that could work five to 10 years into the future.
Environmental impacts of conservation
Research has shown that removing irrigated landscapes can increase air temperatures, but shading provided by urban trees can offset potential warming more effectively than irrigation alone.
“Ultimately physically when you evaporate water, you have to cool the air a little bit,” Petrie said. “And so if we are needing to conserve water by reducing irrigated urban landscapes, ultimately, if you don’t provide cooling through some other means, you will increase your air temperatures.”
The Southern Nevada Water Authority offers rebates for homeowners who add trees and shrubs to their landscaping as part of conservation efforts.
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