As\u00a0The Telegraph reports,<\/a>\u00a0as with many things in Sin City, the apparently endless supply of water is an illusion.<\/p>\n America\u2019s most decadent destination has been engaged in a potentially catastrophic gamble with nature and now, 14 years into a devastating drought, it is on the verge of losing it all.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe situation is as bad as you can imagine,\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>said Tim Barnett, a climate scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. \u201cIt\u2019s just going to be screwed. And relatively quickly.\u00a0Unless it can find a way to get more water from somewhere Las Vegas is out of business. Yet they\u2019re still building, which is stupid.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Things are not good…<\/p>\n Las Vegas gets just four inches of rain in a good year, and in the first four months of 2014 there was just 0.31 of an inch.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Southern Nevada Water Authority, which has the task of keeping the city from running dry, has described the effects of the drought as \u201cevery bit as serious as a Hurricane Katrina or a Superstorm Sandy\u201d.<\/p>\n …<\/p>\n However,\u00a0Las Vegas still uses 219 gallons of water per person per day, one of the highest figures in the US. In San Francisco the figure is just 49 gallons<\/strong>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n But they have a plan…<\/p>\n Lake Mead\u2019s water level is currently at 1,087ft above sea level. There are two pipes, known as \u201cstraws\u201d, that take water from it to Las Vegas.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The first extracts water at an elevation of 1,050ft and is likely to be sucking at air, rather than water, soon. The second straw is at 1,000ft.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lake Mead is expected to fall another 20ft towards that critical point by the end of this year.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Beneath the ground a\u00a0mammoth effort is already under way to complete a new, lower straw which will be able to draw the last of the water from the lake.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n But it is a\u00a0painfully slow process<\/strong>\u00a0as a giant drill the size of two football pitches advances at a rate of one inch per day.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n That rescue project is costing $817 million<\/strong>\u00a0and is currently expected to be complete by late 2015, but it is not viewed as a long-term solution.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Las Vegas also wants to build a separate $15.5 billion pipeline that would pump 27 billion gallons of groundwater a year from an aquifer 260 miles away in rural Nevada.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n But a judge has refused permission after environmentalists sued<\/strong>\u00a0on the basis that it would adversely affect 5,500 acres of meadows, 33 miles of trout streams, and 130,000 acres of habitat used by sage grouse, mule deer, elk and pronghorn, an antelope-like creature that is endangered in the region. The court heard that 25 species of Great Basin springsnails would be pushed toward extinction.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n But in the end, it’s a fals promise…<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a really dumb-headed proposition. It would provide a false sense of security that there\u2019s plenty of water and it would delay the inevitable decisions that have to be taken about water conservation and restricting growth.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe drought is like a slow spreading cancer across the desert.\u00a0<\/strong>It\u2019s not like a tornado or a tsunami, bang. The effects are playing out over decades. And as the water situation becomes more dire we are going to start having to talk about the removal of people (from Las Vegas).\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mr Mrowka cited Lake Las Vegas, a mega-resort where stars including Celine Dion live, as one of the\u00a0\u201cmost egregious examples\u201d of wasting water.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n And then there’s this…<\/p>\n One proposal is for landlocked Nevada to pay billions of dollars to build solar-powered desalination plants in the Pacific off Mexico, taking Mexico\u2019s share of Colorado River water in exchange.<\/p>\n But Mr Mrowka said:\u00a0\u201cThe Colorado is essentially a dying river. Ultimately, Las Vegas and our civilisation in the American South West is going to disappear, like the Indians did before us.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Las Vegas Is “Screwed”; The Water Situation “Is As Bad As You Can Imagine” by Tyler Durden “It’s just going to be screwed. And relatively quickly,”\u00a0warns Tim Barnett, of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, telling\u00a0The Telegraph, the situation in Las … Continue reading \n
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