Las Vegas: A Water Conservation Trailblazer Amid the Worst Drought in 1,200 Years | WSJ
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 พ.ค. 2024
- As severe drought in the West forces states to make drastic water cuts, Las Vegas offers a road map to making the most out of every drop of water. Since 2002, Southern Nevada has cut its Colorado River water use by 26% while its population has grown by 750,000.
Photo: Getty Images/Storyblocks
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I hate how they gloss over the fountains source as a private well, as if groundwater depletion wasn't a major issue when it comes to water conservation.
only one stat really matters: over 80% of water used in the west is for agriculture. Gotta eat, right? Well, we have abandoned farms all over in the east bc the disconnected, segmented fields aren't easily consolidated into factory farms (except when they are, and those have been consolidated into CAFOs).
Plus, some of the food and cattle feed grown in the west is shipped overseas.
Bust worst of all: our choices of food types. I'm a meat eater always will be. But i rarely eat beef due to its impact. Chicken is best, in terms of water usage and carbon footprint
What world will i leave my young daughter? My parent's generation really screwed stuff up and my gen hasn't done much to help yet
@@burtan2000 Your parents probably thought the same thing about their parents generation. Pointing fingers doesn't fix problems. We all need to work together to create a chicken that tastes like beef.
@@The_Savage_Wombat Yep...Beef is the biggest water waster...so is growing crops like alfalfa, avocados and almonds grown in the middle of a desert....do you realize that many foreign entities (Saudi, Chinese and others) have bought thousands of acres of land in the desert Southwest and received water rights...now they are growing thirsty crops while depleting America's groundwater (which is already depleted in many locations in the West)...Ironically they are sending these crops to their homelands...from one desert to another...and America has ALLOWED this!! America deserves it when all the water is gone!!
There is a problem with wells in that when you remove water from underground there is no water to replace it. In the Central Valley of California, farmers used to get Well water a 100 feet below ground are now drilling 500 feet to get water.
In top of that, the constant use of it has caused the central valley to sink. In some areas by 30ft
In kansas treated waste water is pumped back underground since the arkansas river stopped flowing in western kansas in the late 1990s.
Desert-style gardens are not only much more sustainble than grass, but also much more beautiful in my opinion! I would love to have one.
Non-functional grass is a new term for me, but I'll be thinking it on every walk down the street now.
What an amazing conservation example Las Vegas has set.
Yet they still have hundreds of tropical palm trees.
Like replacing them with a different tropical tree that adds shade would be ok but a subtropical or even desert native tree that adds lots of shade would be better.
Also they need to stop topping there trees let them grow and be trees if you top or cut a branch you make a maintenance tree.
Ok rant over have a good day friend.
Non functional grass unless your a casino or a wealthy snob
wonder how they fight soil erosion
California is the biggest user of water and 17% of California water use goes to Almond Farms. Only 8% is used by the entire state population. I don’t know about you but I can go without almonds to relieve the pressure of the drought.
80% of water is used in agriculture so if improvements are to be made it is there.
Well, this will depend on the area. According to the wsj, in Nevada, residents are the largest consumers, accounting for 60% of the year's water usage.
@@CharlesReinmuth They word it quite sneakily, but the graph showed only relates to water use in Las Vegas. They also don't elaborate on whether it is city itself (600k inhabitants) or metro area (2.2M inhabitants). There is no mention of agriculture anywhere.
@@lielakoma this is all fair points. Yet, amount of agriculture use will depend on the area. Blanket statements like the op aren't super helpful. 😕
Yeah, they should quit growing food, that would save water.
Do you hear yourself?
Yeah absolutely - California is a huge producer of water intensive crops! I know this because I lived for some time in Canada (a country with much! more water than the Southwest of the US) and in the supermarket the cheapest lettuce was from CA - THIS needs to stop. Other countries in the north with more rainfall should ramp up their production so that CA can stop it altogether (they have Silicon Valley & Hollywood so they are anyways fine on the economic side w/o agriculture)
It's time to stop referring to this as a "drought". That term makes people think it's just a matter of time until the sky starts pouring down rain. It's not coming.
True that actually - the climate of the whole region is changing - it’s permanent not temporary… but wouldn’t that also imply that they eventually have to reduce population and (in the worst case) even abandon some places and move north (or to some place where the conditions are better?)
I absolutely applaud the effort by Vegas for municipal savings. The water conversation cannot happen without discussing beef consumption and waste. Based on various stats I have found online (I welcome someone directing me to better stats if they exist), we waste somewhere around 20-25% of useable beef. Cattle feed represents 30+% of water use in the west. That amount of waste represents as much water as all residential use off of the colorado river.
The major portion of the corn plant that is fed to cattle is the stalk and the leaves, usually turned into silage, or chopped and added to a feed mixture, but also consumed as forage in the field after the money crop is harvested. Similarly cows don’t drink whiskey, but they eat the grain that is left after we make whiskey. This gets manipulated by vegans into "omg, they're eating all our human food!!!" This is just upcycling and basic supply chain efficiency.
@@wealth1ness In the SW, much farmland is used to grow alfalfa, particularly in AZ, which is then fed to cattle. The farmers grow alfalfa because stupidly drafted laws impose a "use it or lose it" policy, so if they don't use their full water allocation, they lose it in future years.
Corn may be the primary staple for cattle elsewhere, but not in the SW. Besides, we shouldn't be growing much at all in the SW - it's a desert, and we're too stupid to treat it like one, so we give farmers massively subsidized rates on extremely scarce water. I don't want my tax dollars going to pay farmers to use up water in the desert.
I love steak hamburg roast beef and all things dairy. Both my parents and all 4 grandparents grew up on dairy farms. I lived there every summer.
BUT , we have to drastically reduce beef and even dairy (beef is worse). It's destroying our environment
Agriculture uses 80%+ of the water in the American west. That is INSANE people.
Random thoughts from Australia. All I can say is VIVA LAS VEGAS!!!! What an exceptional plan they have come up with for it's businesses and residents. Glad to hear that other parts of the west are adapting LV's way to conserve water.
Isn't Australia suffering from huge floods right now?
Researchers in California and Utah found that dams made by the animals can help create drought- and fire-resistant landscapes. "Beavers move in here and they slow this water down," California State University professor Emily Fairfax told CBS News national correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti.Aug 31, 2022
The North American beaver (Castor canadensis) had a historic range that overlapped the Sierra Nevada in California. Before the European colonization of the Americas, beaver were distributed from the arctic tundra to the deserts of northern Mexico.
The WSJ reporting on the outcome of its own denial.
i grew up in vegas; i am 48. i can't remember a time when the city wasn't conscious and concerned over water usage. like you only had certain days you could turn on your sprinklers and i do believe there were financial benefits to home owners to landscape sans grass. i now find myself in denver, co and i'm dissappointed at the amount of unnecessary water i see being used especially since it's already super green here.
Until recently, beavers were considered invasive species. Beavers and their dams are still being removed by wildlife managers in the Sierra Nevada despite evidence of having been indigenous to the area and of their beneficial effects on biodiversity for fish and other species in mountain wetland ecosystems.
How can you prove that the beaver is the breaking water ecosystem?
@@user-bo6bg4jt5p they are good for ecosystems
Read "Cadillac Desert" by Marc Reisner for a history of the insane water wars of the desert southwest.
It should be required reading in high school instead of some of the garbage they make you read
Should talk about the way the casinos generate their own electricity next. Vegas invested in green energy a long time ago.
Is it done by all the people pulling the levers slot machines to generate electricity? 😆
I applaud everyone who applauds LV. However, LV's hard work should not go punished, which is basically what the Feds are doing. Their commitment to conserving water should override anyone's senior water rights, and this type of practice should be at the heart of any water allocation initiative.
The senior water rights that you are referring to are either underground water rights or the rights of the different farmers in each basin state with rich topsoil from millions of years of seasonal flooding ... which is pretty much California and Arizona. Being that the federal government controls what goes to the states, they don't deal with the state-level water rights ... the fed will just ratchet down ALL states' water output at the same time then each state's court system will have to deal with all the bickering over water rights regarding each state's portion of the Colorado River water. As mentioned at 1:37, that's 17% for Arizona and 27% for California. Nevada just gets 2% of which most of that goes to Las Vegas. (Reno gets its water from Lake Reno.) The interesting part not covered in this video was that in the 1990s, there was a push to try to increase that 2% share due to Las Vegas's growing population ... but the city's water czar at the time, Patricia Mulroy, pretty much said, "screw that ... we first need to conserve water better ... I will show you how!" She was the one who pushed for removing grass and replacing with rocks and palm trees and other desert plants and implementing residential drip irrigation and went as far as threatening to sue businesses and other agencies which didn't comply. She would storm out of meetings slamming the door behind her ... and in one meeting, she stormed back in to pick up her cell phone which she had forgotten, and then stormed back out and slamming the door behind her again. She worked with the casino magnates to make sure they were conserving, and when they met her conservation goals, she then ensured them and their investors that their casinos would get the water they needed to continue attracting investments, grow The Strip, and generate even more tax revenue for the city's budget of which a large portion went to her agency, the Las Vegas Valley Water District. Her tactics were a bit aggressive so she ended up with the moniker of "The Water Witch" ... and yet, people got in step with her ... eventually. It took 10 years as the city's water czar before water consumption started declining significantly as seen in the chart at 0:38. She was so successful that when Nevada's state government needed a negotiator to haggle with the water bosses from the other six states shown at 1:37, she was tapped for that. Because of the success she had already achieved in conserving water in Las Vegas, she had a great deal of leverage over the other states and in the eyes of the federal government as well, which was the ultimate decision maker. Even with California having the most reps in the U.S. Congress and making all sorts of excuses why they shouldn't have their water cut and that it should be taken out from the other six states, The Water Witch still got everything she wanted. That's why The Strip is still thriving as of today after housing bubbles and COVID and multiple recessions. Seeing Lake Mead's very low water level now, she doesn't apologize for being a hard azz for so many years ... and rightly so.
So why aren’t the other 7 states implementing the same water conservation policies and technology that Vegas has implemented? They all should have to follow Las Vegas as we have it right!
I live in Phoenix and I hate those old communities with large ugly pine trees and grass everywhere. They look ugly and waste so much water. You can grow so many beautiful plants in the desert that thrive on little to no supplemental water.
Pine trees not even crops. What a waste of money and resources
if i lived there i would get fake grass put in. i don't like the desert landscaping.
The Marshal Islands might be a good example to follow, the airport runway channels water to a large underground cistern.
what about rain water capture systems for homes? do they have them?
Are able to get rid of the deadly ameba in Lake Mead?
Not only water. The Vegas strip has 90% of its power come from the massive solar grid near the border with California. The strip hotels are very independent of city and county resources. Go Vegas!
Why is it there's this seemingly this belief that the tap water in Las Vegas isn't drinkable? I was told by the cab drivers that I shouldn't drink the tap water there. I did anyway, taste a bit funny but didn't get sick or anything...
It's hard water. Yes you can drink it, it's just not the most pleasant.
Who's bright idea is to settle in a desert and then create golf courses that are thirsty for water.
maybe we shouldn't be exporting almonds from a desert
people are not wasting water . the issue is the grand ditch taking allot of water from going west instead it flows east
I agree with the idea that we should remove "lawns" irrigated by outside sources... but i need to also advise, here in phoenix , my wild un tamed greenery in my back yard retains this mass amount of moisture every dew morning during half the year.
I see feet of growth without any outside water and I think we should consider the idea that natural replenishment sources are more valid than these human oriented conversations. When possible, dont mow... if mow, leave clippings, when you can, enjoy the native growth. Down with HOAs, UP with naturalistic humans
The chart at 1:36 seemingly intends to show avg rainfall for all 50 states and DC, except NY State is missing. I think S Dakota is also missing. Meanwhile, Rhode Island is shown twice.
It makes sense the first instance of RI is correct, bc I presume it's avg rainfal is nearly identical to its similarly small sized neighboring state of New Hampshire.
I also can't envision Texas getting more avg precip than Minnesota.
These may seem like meaningless errors but accurate representation of DATA is kinda important in JOURNALISM and in any publication of meteorological data. This video is both of those things.
And this is not some local news outlet. This is a big one i think. It sounds familiar but i can't recall for sure ....
The conservation efforts are great, but washing millions of cars in a desert-like area more often than once a month still seems a bit weird. Of course I understand that the strip wouldn´t look as pretty with all dusty road runners driving around, but hey, welcome to planet earth.
private well. You mean the national groundwater reserve. My god this is so dumb
it is always refreshing when people, media, ... points out positive USA
instead of what seems like a constant focus on negative USA
- why America/America thing is bad/no good, worse than... -
Places built that should have never been built. Mafia built Sin City🙏
You're right Cynthia
Too.little. Too late.
Hoover Dam was built to generate power. The lake that was created was a side note. Unfortunately, creating a large surface area of water causes massive evaporation in a hot desert. The power generated by the Dam is the most wasteful use of water to generate power in the country.
Do you even hear yourself
Have been brought up to think more plants bring more rain anyways that's a thing of the East Africa so what's the right thing
Ah you lost me at the “water police.”
Someone needs to enforce water conservation laws! They don’t carry guns or anything like that. The name is more designed to convey the seriousness of wasting water than anything else.
The Colorado River is 80% used for growing Alfa!! How 🌰s is that fact?!
solution
let´s plant more water
I mean... seeding clouds is a thing, doesn't work too well though I think
Plants
Maybe but they need to be seen doing it. Fountains, Venetian, Water parks, hotel baths, outside pools are all sending wrong message.
The most important resource on that planet and we waste it so much.
Was this sponsored bc lake mead is so low? You don't hear any cons about Las Vegas water usage?
I guess people in Las Vegas can't touch water anymore.
Too much grass removal can lead to deforestation which can lead to strong sand storms.
I think forestation was the simple solution to the sand storm problem, shown in the Interstellar movie.
Have you ever heard of sandstorms in the amazon forest or any forest?
Christopher Nolan missed this point in the Interstellar movie.
In the movie, The reason to leave planet earth, is not needed.
There is no need to go to other planets. Just maintain nice green cover. on our existing planet Earth.
It's good be aware of that trees would help alot.
private well - too good to be true....
Drought?
Israel has a surplus of usable water-in the desert!
We should take notice.
Southern California HOAs could learn more from Vegas!
70% of water goes to agriculture industry... To the pockets of a few people... Just shows you democracy has price to pay as well as capitalism
Las Vegas is still going to become a ghost city in a ghost civilization by 2040.
Probable
leaving utah for the east
Notice on the compact native American tribes are not listed although I think it's inaccurate that Mexico is. It's also inaccurate to say they overestimated the amount of water they had. They knew & pretended there was more water than there was so they could pass the buck of water conservation down the line. You can tell when they write BS terms like "magic water". I'm worried that no matter what measures we take it won't be enough unless the population contracts instead of growing or remaining steady which is very bad for any city/state. Even if you ban all non native desert plants & watering them. Even requiring all homes have rainwater basins & water recycling using high efficiency showers (mist or button holding required), grey water toilets. Even requiring farms to use water conservative crops and direct point irrigation (hoses with drip spikes instead of spraying in air) Unless every home can survive close to only the water that falls on it's roof how can you support a mega drought stricken region with a growing population indefinitely?
City of Vegas shouldn't exist
Neither should you
They are all so busy congratulating themselves. That they don't understand what is happening. When that well dries up, they might think?
water is wasted by inventing and making new things
how bout reduction of meat production overall, also reduction of producing water intensive products?
thats not the issue here, the problem is the grand ditch. Which was built to divert allot of the snowmelt water flowing into the colorado river and diverts it east
Nah. Not life blood. Not “life blood.” Not life bloo. Not “life bloo.” /
This all cuz of las Vegas....
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Not only Bellagio fountain show, it will effect Mirage volcano show as well.
Because the volcano show is actually a fountain show.
How about a comprehensive water project to bring excess water pipelines / tunnels, from the Midwest/ North Eastern states with payments to the donor states and revenue from the receiving states payed through a consortium.
Southwest States are too important to allow them to wither away anymore!
Nah we good.
AZ as a state has one of the best water management system on the planet. Over 90% of its water is treated and used again and again. Also, Lake Mead's water levels will go back to normal by the end of the decade.
BS
Well that’s a lie. Arizona is a water wreck as discussed in various news sources.
No, AZ uses a huge chunk of the water of the Colorado River for agriculture. If these farmers paid residential rates for this cheap water, things would change fast.
actually the big issue here is the grand ditch which takes a majority of snowmelt water away from calorado river
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Hope that in the next years there's not a single blade of grass in those states
I hope you mean all states excpet NV. All other states are super guilty of wasting water.
Just don't live there
The solution isn't that simple
Thank god we have 1200 years of historical precipitation data.
All grass is functional as it converts CO2 to O
It's hard for kids to get the exercise they need running around a cactus garden.
Move to a place where grass grows naturally then if you need it so much. It doesn't grow naturally in the Mojave it shouldn't be planted there either
The sooner Las Vegas turns into a ghost town the better.
Conservation will not save Las Vegas. It has three years until all power fails. However, before that, the lack of power is only going to decrease with each summer. Las vegas is a doomed city.
Shut that stupid fountain down. It’s a waste of resources
fake news
This is why America needs a vehicle like the Aeroscraft ML86X. It's made in the USA, it can carry 500 tons anywhere at anytime, and land and take off from any environment. It can land and take off from runways, forest clearings, ice packs, from the water, even at the top of skyscraper. This vehicle fills a niche transportation need that is necessary and vital for today's economy and the oncoming onslaught of climate change, that will only affect us even more into the future. This is not your "Hindenburg" airship, they use inert helium, with ballasts and function as a hovercraft when landing and taking off. They can also be used to fight forest fires and/or irrigate farmland when it is dry. Transport oil and gas to remote locations, function as a communications / generator hub in disaster areas and be utilized by FEMA / USCG for mass search and rescue. There are many variations that can be built to fill our needs. They cost around $1B each to build, but obviously they're well worth it, with the money states are already spending. America needs this vital craft to accommodate our future transportation challenges. www.aerospace-technology.com/projects/aeroscraft-ml866-rigid-variable-buoyancy-air-vehicle-us/
Spare water use quantity to the maximum degree as long as the drought is being conistant. Close the golf fields, resorts, waste water area. Study the renewable method of waste water
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