In Vegas, Wasting Water is a Sin

Home Browse Search

In Vegas, wasting water is a sin http: / /aj c.printthis. clickability. com/pt/cpt ?action =cpt &title =In +Vega... secretary of interior next month will do that. It allows the Southern Nevada Water Authority to pipe water from the Muddy, a short river about 60 miles northeast of Las Vegas; the Virgin, a long tributary of the Colorado; and the Coyote Spring Basin northeast of the city. As part of the seven -state agreement, Nevada will help pay for a reservoir in Southern California. The plan is supposed to ensure that Lake Mead doesn't fall below a minimum level. Mulroy said the agreement, reached after "four years of chest beating" and "some very childish behavior" among the states, is much more equitable. "We had to succeed," she said. "We could spend the next 20 years in the Supreme Court. In the meantime, we'd all be sucking air." In a separate plan, the Southern Nevada Water Authority proposes purchasing and pumping billions of gallons of groundwater from rural east - central Nevada for use by Las Vegas, an idea that's sparked much controversy. Some environmentalists say parts of the state could become a dust bowl. Some rural Nevadans resent the expanding city. And some Utah officials want a federal study to make sure the pipeline doesn't tap into Utah's aquifer — a request Mulroy says would interfere with Nevada's sovereign right. "It's going to get uglier before it gets better," Mulroy predicted. Controlling growth, she said, is not an option — although environmentalists insist the area's population explosion must be curtailed. "What are we going to do, build walls ?" she asked. "Will we reach a point where our own kids can't live here ?" A history lesson in order The people pouring into Vegas must be educated about the concept of desert life, said Bronson Mack, a spokesman for the water authority. One way water officials are trying to do that is through the Las Vegas Springs Preserve. On the site of the defunct original spring, the preserve opened in June as a $250 million attraction of exhibits, gardens and trails that illustrate the heritage and ecology of the Mojave Desert and Las Vegas. "The history of the city is the history of the water in this valley," said Marcel Parent, the preserve's education director. Current casinos and hotels are also feeding most of the water they use back into the Las Vegas Wash, which feeds recycled water back to Lake Mead. The gaming and hospitality industries, which account for only 3 percent of the area's overall water use, are generally pretty good stewards, authority officials say. And, of course, they drive the area's economy. Tourists aren't drawn to casinos only for the gambling. Sometimes, it's all about the show. At the Golden Nugget, an older hotel and casino in downtown Las Vegas, a Michigan mother waited for a hamburger at a grill. During three days in town with her grown daughter, she had been in almost every of 5 11/26/2007 10:51 AM