Factors Affecting Las Vegas's Water Shortage

Water scarcity is increasing worldwide and dramatically affecting first world nations such as Spain, Australia, and the United States. All nations are now starting to recognize that the world's water is a finite resource, and that resource is being drastically altered in both availability and quality by development, climate change and population growth. In the United States, the Colorado River is experiencing rapid declines in volume. Recent studies and data suggest that the changes in frequency, intensity, and timing of the availability of water will have substantial impact on the way we live our lives in the 21st century and beyond. As Letmathe Brakeck said, “I am confident that, under present

As you are fully aware, California has been in a drought for over four years and the declining water level is a growing issue. A water analysis performed by the City of Fresno clearly reveals that in the past 80 years,

The State of Colorado has suffered from a water shortage in recent years; a difficult situation which is easily visible when viewing the quickly shortening length of the Colorado River. Lake Mead, for example, is roughly 130 feet lower than it once was, marked by the stained rock which towers above the current water level. “The river has become a perfect symbol of what happens when we ask too much of a limited resource: it disappears. In fact, the Colorado no longer regularly reaches the sea” (Zielinski, 2010). Legislation was implemented early on to address this issue, though the results were (perhaps not surprisingly) rather unanticipated, regarding

One of the largest geographic physical structures in the United States is the Colorado River. Human activity and its interaction with this great river have an interesting history. The resources provided by the river have been used by humans, and caused conflict for human populations as well. One of these conflicts is water distribution, and the effects drought conditions have played in this distribution throughout the southwestern region. Major cities such as Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Diego, and other communities in the southwest depend on the river. It provides water for over 20 million people, irrigation for 2 million acres of land, four thousand megawatts of hydroelectric energy, and over twenty million annual visitors for

With the Colorado River supplying 43% of all agricultural water consumption and 41% of all Municipal and Industrial water supply in the basin, losing access to this resource entirely for one year would cost $1.434 trillion in combined state GDP [2]. Just a ten percent decline in water availability will reduce combined basin states GDP by $143.4 billion, reduce employment in the area by 1.6 million job-years, and reduce labor income by 87.1billion dollars per year [2]. In addition to the shrinking economic production, the cost of living in the area would also start to increase. The water in the Colorado River provides inexpensive energy for the parts of the lower basin states, the cost of the power has doubled from the initial contracts, and if water levels fall to 1000', the costs could quintuple for customers that are bound to purchase the hydroelectric power until 2067 [8]. While the internal economy of the basin would suffer, the effects would also ripple into the rest of the country. The agricultural Imperial Valley in California, for example, provides two-thirds of the country's vegetables in the winter [9]. Without proper irrigation and water supply, production rates

Yet, humans have limited control on natural events, so this only reinforces the importance of managing water wisely. Recently California’s government has begun to focus more on sustaining and restoring the water supply. Dale Kasler (2016) articulates in his article some of the steps they have decided to make to solve this serious issue. The government has made the following investments: “$415 million for watershed restoration and other environmental aid for Lake Tahoe; up to $335 million for two proposed reservoirs in California, including the Sites reservoir north of Sacramento; $880 million for flood-control projects on the American and Sacramento rivers in Sacramento; and $780 million for flood-control projects in West Sacramento” (para. 10). This could be the first step to restoring the water to California. But these

In the book The Big Thirst, Charles Fishman addresses the key issues of how water is abused in areas, like Las Vegas, and the era of “easy” water is over. Fishman explains where the largest amount of water is located and water’s presence in space. His book is mainly composed of case studies showing how water in certain areas, like Las Vegas and India, has been dwindling and the absence of preparation in those places when the water is almost gone. Lastly, he talks about the misconceptions of tap water and the lack of understanding communities and people in power have about the future of water. Fishman wants the reader to be crystal clear on how water has come to this point, the issues of water shortages, and the solutions to water problems.

Arizona has an incredibly large dependence on the Colorado River and groundwater. In fact, 39% of all water usage in Arizona is comprised of Colorado River water. Any dependence of that scale on any resource that originates in another area is always a major risk, as any major disaster or drastic change to the source of the river can cripple the state’s water supply. Furthermore, while Arizona does house the majority of the Lower Basin of the Colorado, the Colorado’s Upper Basin is shared between 4 other states, all with their own water needs and all with a susceptibility to drought. On the other hand, another 40% of all water Arizona uses is from groundwater sources. However, the Colorado River and these groundwater sources in the Colorado River basins have lost over 65 cubic kilometers of water over the last 9 years, with nearly 2/3 of it from groundwater loss due to over-pumping. This is because

For this paper water structures and infrastructures were selected as focus points because the longer we wait to fix issues with them, the more expensive it will get, in other words, we are in a race against time. Studying the past it is easy to see how water availability made population explode in an area such as Southern California, where savvy marketing and great politics made it happen. Particularly, for Los Angeles and for the purposes of public narrative, Marc Reisner’s Cadillac Desert does a great job at understanding and identifying the politics and key figures in getting water to Los Angeles. Great hydrologic structures were created using both manpower and water politics. It is important to state that there are connections between water, politics, environment, and geography when analyzing what the biggest problems involving water structures and infrastructures (Reisner.) We must think of water as both a socio-political issue and a natural resource, whose fate is molded by the understanding of its connectivity to itself, man-made structures, geography, environment, and society. The classes taken in this program have taught us ideals that in order to become a great water resource manager, one must master the political and scientific knowledge to make decisions that are prosperous for society and the environment. Furthermore, one must know the United States’ hydrological history in order to gain manipulation upon the system that makes it both thrive and deteriorate.

Texas, with its abundances of natural resources, is facing a new demon, one that doesn’t even seem possible, a shortage of water. Water, without it nothing can survive. Texas is the second largest state for landmass in the nation and ninth for water square miles. Within the borders of Texas are more than 100 lakes, 14 major rivers, and 23 aquifers, so why has water become such an important issue for the state? Politicians and conservationists all agree that without a new working water plan, the state could be facing one of the most damaging environmental disasters they have ever seen. The issues that shape the states positions are population growth, current drought conditions, and who actually owns the water.

Now Arizona is not the typical state that has a lot of precipitation and rain yearly, but it depends off other reservoirs, lakes, and rivers located in other states to for their water supply. After searching and conducting research, it was found that the main impact Arizona is suffering from the drought is decreasing water levels is from Lake Mead (located in Nevada), and the Colorado River, which flows North to South through several U.S. states. Research and data found shows that the Bureau of Reclamation releases water into the Colorado River below Lake Mead to meet water demands of downstream users in Arizona and California, and also to satisfy treaty obligations to the Republic of Mexico. Findings by the Bureau of Reclamation show that Lake Mead water level’s peaked at 1,214.26 in January of 2000. Almost a decade and a half later, recorded in January 2014, the water levels of Lake Mead are now 1,108.75 (Smith, 2014). This findings show that Arizona is continually getting a decline in water from Lake Mead every month that passes, affects thousands of residents living in Arizona, which already lacks water to begin with. If this continues, this can cause many civilians to both stand by and bare the drought as long as they can, or decide to move out of Arizona to states with a better water supply, so they won’t be burdened with the continual burden of having to ration and conserve water. The state has

On March 27, 2014, Wade Graham of the San Francisco Chronicle reported “The Water Revolution California needs.” California is having a severe drought. Wade Graham tells his readers that California is in a serious water crisis. The state of California needs to make strict changes to how water is being distributed amongst farmers and residents. Before all of California’s ecological system is destroyed. Wade Graham believes that water should be priced higher; that way people aren’t wasting water. Water is a limited resource that should never be wasted, and is probably California’s most valuable resource. Unfortunately, many people waste water; instead of conserve water especially when we live in the state of California where we are subject to

Simply stated, knowledge can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how you use it. Arguably, the inherent purpose and power of knowledge lies in the ability to use that knowledge to make good changes to things around you. The “Individuals and Societies” module explored the implications of knowledge and how we should use knowledge to make changes with respect to our water crisis. In Josh Viers lecture entitled “California Water Wars,” he presented the fact that California, more specifically, is facing a water crisis. Viers states that one reason for this water crisis is the phenomenon of the Sierra Nevada facing monumental shifts in climate change. He posits that the Nevada is shifting from a snow-dominated to rain dominated flow regime, that there is now an earlier timing of snowmelt, and that there are now longer dry seasons (Viers). The purpose of this lecture was two-fold, to inform us about our current and past actions and to warn us that changes need to be made to prevent the exacerbation of our water crisis. Viers urged us to look at the data and see that our actions

When referring to Arizona’s water Kris Mayes, chairwoman of the state’s utility regulatory panel once said, “How do you say just how valuable water is in an arid state like Arizona?” she said. “It’s like the credit-card commercial-it’s priceless” (McKinnon). She was right, because in a dry state like Arizona, water is pretty important. To say water is ‘pretty important’ for the world is an understatement. We use water to function. And when we think of water we think of saving it. Keep the faucets from dripping or turn off the water while brushing your teeth. There are numerous tips for water conservation, but people don’t often think of the damage that is already done. Damages like ‘dead zones’. Dead zones in the ocean have been around for

In the documentary, “Last Call at the Oasis” it highlights the dark side of the excessive use of water by humans. It is no secret that water is the most important part of human survival, but how humans have been using water has taken a tremendous toll on the water supply. Water use is truly a tragedy of the commons, and as mentioned in the documentary, Lake Mead is just one example of how excess water use is affecting the water supply. Lake Mead provides water to Las Vegas and the surrounding regions as well as produces power with the Hoover Dam. However, the water level of Lake Mead has been dropping at a rate of 10 feet per year. While this may not seem