Las Vegas' insatiable thirst jeopardizes other regional uses including agriculture, as well as other critters [as the lawsuit at the bottom highlights], ignoring costs and sensible solutions. Clean water is no longer an unlimited commodity and bears a steep price tag.
Let's hope SNWA reverses course.
Single-family homes in Las Vegas use 100 gallons of water outside, per person, per day—almost entirely for landscaping. This use is substantially higher than in Los Angeles, Tucson, or Albuquerque. Reducing Las Vegas’ outdoor water use to more reasonable levels could cut Nevada’s total Colorado River withdrawals by 10 percent.
Researchers found that by improving and expanding existing programs, and adding programs proven elsewhere in the West, the SNWA can cut Las Vegas homeowners’ indoor water waste by 40% and hotel and casino water waste by 30%. These indoor efficiency gains come from upgrading fixtures and appliances, not changing behavior. Improving total water efficiency not only saves significant water and energy expenses, it also better insulates the region from drought.
“Improving indoor and outdoor water efficiency makes Las Vegas less vulnerable to current and future droughts,” said Taryn Hutchins-Cabibi, report coauthor and Water Policy Analyst at WRA. “Given the scarcity of fresh water, rising energy prices, and the looming threat of climate change, Las Vegas’ water customers need the SNWA’s help to curb unnecessary water waste and save money.”
“Hidden Oasis” notes an imbalance in the regions budget priorities. For every fourteen dollars it spends on developing new sources of water, it spends only one dollar on helping its customers use water wisely, and less than a dime of that goes to indoor efficiency efforts.
From: Hidden Oasis:
Water Conservation and Efficiency in Las Vegas
http://www.pacinst.org/reports/las_vegas/
Strict controls and smart re-use means the water that happens on Vegas links stays on Vegas links.
Fact: A single, 18-hole round of golf at a typical Las Vegas golf course requires 2,507 gallons of water.
That's not "virtual water," it's the actual amount of water that has to be sprinklered onto the golf course to get it ready, each night, for each golfer.
From: The Big Thirst: Nothing’s Quite So Thirsty As A Las Vegas Golf Course
By Charles Fishman
April 25, 2011 Strict controls and smart re-use means the water that happens on Vegas links stays on Vegas links.
http://www.fastcompany.com/1749643/big-thirst-nothing%E2%80%99s-quite-so-thirsty-las-vegas-golf-course
On tap is Southern Nevada Water Authority’s proposal to pump 41 billion gallons of water a year to a thirsty Las Vegas from rural Nevada. A study commissioned by SNWA puts the project’s price tag at an estimated $7 billion, plus another $8 billion for financing costs. The study forecasts that the 300-mile long pipeline will nearly double water bills for southern Nevada businesses and homeowners
...shoring up Southern Nevada’s water security cannot be achieved without simultaneous investments to tangibly reduce water use. SNWA has already made huge strides in this regard. Most notable are water reuse projects like the one that supplies the Bellagio Resort fountains, and the 14,000 acre-feet – 5 billion gallons a year – saved annually by paying Las Vegas residents to replace their lawns with native xeriscaping. All told, Las Vegas has cut more than 30 percent of its consumption of Colorado River water in the last 10 years – a feat all the more amazing given that people have suffered little, if at all, from the reduction.
From: Cutting water use is the best bet for Southern Nevada
Sharlene Leurig
Thursday, Feb. 9, 2012
Lawsuit: Tiny snails threatened by Las Vegas water grab
Sunday, Sept. 16, 2012
That's the thrust of a lawsuit filed by an environmental group that claims four species of springsnails could perish if Southern Nevada Water Authority is allowed to build a massive pipeline and pump groundwater from rural areas to quench the thirst of Nevada's gambling metropolis.
"This pumping is like a very small moving cancer across the landscape," said Rob Mrowka, a Nevada advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity.
In its lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., the center asks a federal judge to compel the Fish and Wildlife Service to issue its conclusions on whether the bifid duct, flag, hardy and Lake Valley pyrg — all species of springsnails — deserve protection under the Endangered Species Act.
The center and others petitioned the Fish and Wildlife Service in 2009 to list 42 Great Basin springsnail species, including the four noted in the lawsuit, for federal listing as threatened or endangered. In a preliminary finding last year, the service said the snails — measuring from an about an eighth to a quarter-inch in size — may warrant protection but further review was needed to make that determination.
"There's actually 25 species of springsnails that are imminently threatened by the pipeline project," said Rob Mrowka, a Nevada advocate for the Tucson, Ariz.-based environmental group. But under an agreement struck with the service in 2011 to limit litigation, the center's lawsuit focuses on only the four springsnails, he said.
The lawsuit doesn't target the pipeline or water pumping directly and SNWA is not named as a defendant. But springsnails, should they be given endangered species protection, would give critics more legal ammunition to fight the project in other court actions.
"Assuming the pipeline is approved and a right of way is granted, we want to be in the position of being able to stop it at least temporarily while the courts decide," Mrowka said.
Jason King, Nevada's state engineer, granted SNWA approval in March to pump up to 84,000 acre-feet of groundwater a year from four rural valleys to Las Vegas — home to 2 million people and 40 million tourists a year. Several lawsuits have been filed in state courts challenging that decision, and the project itself is years, if not decades away from becoming reality.
Environmentalists and others argue water pumping would dramatically reduce ground water levels, threatening not only the springsnails but other wildlife, agriculture, ranching and rural lifestyles.
Last month, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management released its environmental study and recommended approval of its preferred alternative for SNWA to build a 280-mile long pipeline needed to carry water from the rural counties to Las Vegas. The price tag was initially estimated at $3 billion, but critics say the actual cost could reach $16 billion.
The BLM report is now in a 60-day review period, and a final record of decision is expected by the end of the year.
Also still pending is a biological review from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on the consequences the water project would have on wildlife.
Ted Koch, Nevada superintendent for the service, said that review, requested by BLM and the water authority, should be completed next month.
"Of the four species they named in their suit, two of them — the Lake Valley and flag pyrg — are technical assistance species that we were concerned enough about that we did review the impacts," Koch said. He added that review is different than a detailed analysis on whether something should be listed as threatened or endangered, and the report will not address that question.
Mrowka said the snails date back to the ice age.
As the ice receded, "the springs and the streams became isolated ... and species have evolved particular to a certain spring," he said.
Lake Valley pyrg, for example, live in only one spring — in Lake Valley.
"They are tied to unique spring water chemistry as well as spring flow physics," Mrowka said. "They live in a very narrow niche in the spring itself."
The snails serve a critical environmental role and their extinction could have a domino effect on other species such as frogs, toads, dragon and damsel flies, desert fish, birds and mammals, environmentalists argue.
"Freshwater invertebrates like springsnails influence water chemistry, nutrient cycling, rates of productivity and decomposition, and are vital links in the food web," the lawsuit said. "Great Basin spring systems tend to be hotspots of biodiversity, and by protecting springsnails, protection of spring water quality and quantity is guaranteed."
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/sep/16/lawsuit-tiny-snails-threatened-las-vegas-water-gra/
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