REPORT26

Many have hypothesized that Lake Mead, created in 1935, could become functionally dry over the next few decades. Las Vegas, the most populated city in the state of Nevada, take 90% of its water from drying lake. As Las Vegas’ population has grown, the amount of water in the lake has steadily decreased. The drought in the lake can also be attributed to the steady rise of global warming. As Las Vegas fights a rise in population and global warming, it begs the question – can Lake Mead be saved?

"This is not a normal drought," says Pat Mulroy of the Southern Nevada Water Authority. The statistics and observations of the drought are astounding. Since 2001, Lake Mead’s water levels have been steadily dropping below average for all but one year. The lake is half full. Numerous studies believe that the lake will become dry and unusable in the coming years. According to a new study by scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the lake could become dry within 13 years. Some studies predict that water flows in the entire region will drop between 10 and 30 percent. Others argue that there's a 50 percent chance that Lake Mead won't provide water without pumping by 2030, and a 10 percent chance that it won't by 2013. The entire effect of this drought will lead to an increase of the price of water in Las Vegas.

There are two major reasons that the water levels of Lake Mead have been declining. First, Las Vegas’ rising population has caused more and more people to use water from the lake. Since 1980, Las Vegas’ population has more than doubled. It is the fastest growing metropolitan city in the country. Currently the population is steadily above one million, and that is without counting the thousands and thousands of tourists that come into Las Vegas every year. Research estimates that nearly 600,000 tourists stay in Vegas every year. 90% of the water drank by these people comes from Lake Mead. With the increasing need for water over the last few years, there is less and less water for each individual person. There are estimates that the population of Las Vegas will double by 2015. Second, global warming has led to a decrease in water levels for the lake. As the Earth becomes warmer and warmer, the sun causes more of the lake to evaporate, leading to decreasing water levels. This lack of water could also lead to more global warming because water is a key to weight loss. A recent London study recently linked obesity with global warming. This is because when people are obese, it requires more fuel to move that person around. Thus, if lack of water leads to more obesity, and obesity leads to global warming, the lack of water in the lake could lead itself into a perpetual cycle of water loss, thus leading to a never-ending drought. Pat Mulroy states that global warming permanently reduced the lake’s flow.

With the risk of the lake becoming completely unusable by 2021, the people of Las Vegas are making every effort possible to preserve the lake. Mulroy states, 'We've started down this journey to make a cultural transformation in this community where water isn't something they take for granted.” Las Vegas began working towards conserving water in 2003. Now, every drop of water that enters the city’s sewers is cleaned and pumped into Lake Mead. However, even though the city is making every effort possible to stop water flow, lake levels have not stopped to drop. Las Vegas is building another pump into the lake because one of the two they have may stop working soon. This will help buy the government more time as they work on a project to find a rechargeable groundwater supply unconnected to the river. Beside Nevada, six other states have drawn water from Lake Mead. California and Arizona have made an agreement with Nevada on how to allocate the water of the river as it runs low. The agreement includes numerous measures to increase conservation among the three states.

If all of Las Vegas’ conservation tactics don’t work, they will be left without 90% of the water that they use today. This could effect people on a very basic, every day level. If Las Vegas is in a drought, the people in the city will have to make sacrifices. In an attempt to conserve water, the entire population will need to reduce the amount of material objects they wash and dry on a daily basis. People will have to reuse bed sheets and towels, and the need to do this must come sooner than later. Although the government is making numerous attempts to keep a steady water flow into the lake, if global warming has permanently reduced its flow, the people of Las Vegas will never be able to get the same amounts of water that they did in the past. Thus, everybody in Las Vegas should begin to take necessary precautions to conserve water in their homes. Only an entire society can help reduce the speed of the drought. This concept is similar to global warming; one person trying to make a difference is not enough.

In conclusion, Lake Mead is at risk of going completely dry in the coming years because of global warming and because of Las Vegas’ rising population. Nevada’s government has already made attempts to increase conservation of water in the lake, but the plans that the state has implemented have not made the impact that the people of Las Vegas would have hoped. Thus, anybody who takes water from the lake should begin to make every effort to conserve water. Only then can Lake Mead be saved, and only then can Las Vegas stay pumped with water from the largest man-made lake in the United States.