[macgeek]

Water worries: The drying of the West | The Economist

Jonathan

[007 license to sell]

Originally Posted by macgeek

Water worries: The drying of the West | The Economist

Jonathan

Macgeek, here is a more recent article on what is going on with Lake Mead .

According the local news paper the Las Vegas Review Journals news paper there is going to be another straw built to bring more water to las Vegas or Vegas will run out of water. It's been tried before and failed an new way to drill the third straw is going to be tried but more money is needed to do that and the vote for additional funds was passed.

Adding $39.5 million to Lake Mead project worries water authority board member

[unf0rgiven6262]

I see the future now. Each household will get a certain number of water vouchers in the mail. You will go down to the local govt office and trade them in for jugs of water. People will pay for things in ounces of water instead of cash.

[Scott456]

and people who have swimming pools need to seriously worry

[bayview6]

This is much ado about nothing. The technology to turn seawater into potable water is now very economical. All LV has to do is to build a few desalination plants and the water "crisis" is a thing of the past.

[rjlowe]

The sky is falling!

[Scott456]

Originally Posted by bayview6

This is much ado about nothing. The technology to turn seawater into potable water is now very economical. All LV has to do is to build a few desalination plants and the water "crisis" is a thing of the past.

The last time I checked, NV is not on a coast line. Where is the seawater?

[unf0rgiven6262]

Originally Posted by Scott456

The last time I checked, NV is not on a coast line. Where is the seawater?

Lol, that would be a pretty big oversight.

[olecapt]

The sea water deal has been around for a while. The approach is that Nevada would pay for plants in CA and would take CA Colorado river water in return.

Mexico is also a possibility or a three way...

Note that building a desalinization plant on the CA coast is going to be a very difficult to impossible undertaking.

In the short term southern Nevada should push through the northern pipeline. Leave desalinization plants for another era.

And the third straw is very important. They problems of a temporary drop of Lake Mead to below the intakes could well occur. I don't believe SNWA could hold even for a year without an intake....the pumping capacity on the local aquifer does not exist. And that is aside from the fact it would wreck the local aquifer...and might well be subject to legal action by certain well owners.

One would hope that would not be allowed to occur. Transfers from Lake Powell are underway which should prevent any drop this year. But bad snows in the next few years could create a big problem.

[bayview6]

Originally Posted by Scott456

The last time I checked, NV is not on a coast line. Where is the seawater?

I guess I should have used the term "brackish water" instead.

http://www.ucowr.org/updates/132/7.pdf (broken link)

I doubt that southern Nevada will ever run out of salt water or solar energy.