Blake

“Time is the school in which we learn.”
― Joan Didion

“Las Vegas may have turned into the sort of urban agglomeration that critics like Davis find sinful, but a close look at the math behind its water policies, supply, and usage suggests that Las Vegas water managers have done a credible job of staving off their sin’s punishment. Far from a path to destruction, they have developed the needed tools, and they have the track record demonstrating the use of those tools, to allow Las Vegas to follow the path the community’s leaders have chosen. To understand how to solve the Colorado River Basin’s water problems, we have to come to grips with the illusion and the reality of Las Vegas water.”
― John Fleck, Water is for Fighting Over: and Other Myths about Water in the West

“But the Bellagio’s fountain, often mocked as a symbol of water excess in the arid Southwest, may in fact represent some of the highest-value water around. The 12 million gallons a year needed to keep it topped up starts as water too salty to drink, drawn from an old well that once irrigated the Dunes Hotel golf course. Twelve million gallons sounds like a lot, but it’s really just enough to irrigate eight acres of alfalfa in the Imperial Valley.3 Total revenue at the seven giant casino–resort hotels contiguous to the fountain, at the corner of Flamingo Road and South Las Vegas Boulevard—the heart of the famed Las Vegas Strip—is an estimated $3.6 billion.4 Include all of the hotel/casino operations in the greater Las Vegas metro area, and the total rises to $21 billion.5 That compares with total agricultural revenue of $1.9 billion in all of Imperial County.6 Imperial County’s farmers get ten times the water Las Vegas gets. Las Vegas makes ten times the money Imperial County farming does. Given the crowds lining the sidewalks for each one of the fountain’s dancing-water shows, the fountains must represent one of the most economically productive uses of water you’ll find in the West.”
― John Fleck, Water is for Fighting Over: and Other Myths about Water in the West

“From 2002 to 2013, the greater Las Vegas metro area grew by 34 percent to a population of more than 2 million people. During that same period, its use of Colorado River water—its primary source of supply—dropped by 26 percent. By the second decade of the twenty-first century, Las Vegas had become a leading example of a phenomenon that has changed water management across the United States—the decoupling of water use and growth.”
― John Fleck, Water is for Fighting Over: and Other Myths about Water in the West