Las Vegas is its fourteenth year of drought. In a state whose climate is officially ‘semi-arid and arid,’ this can lead to disaster. It has. The city receives 90 percent of it water from Lake Mead, artificially created behind the Hoover Dam, which was completed back in 1936.
Lake Mead is draining fast. In 2008, one study claimed there was a 10 percent chance of it running dry within six years. True, that has not come to pass but the reservoir is in such dire shape that another prediction has it that there is a 50 percent probability it will be completely gone by 2020. The crisis has even attracted the attention of no less than
National Geographic magazine.
Las Vegas is one of the most popular tourist destinations for Americans as well as visitors from beyond the United States. Outside Las Vegas’s Bellagio Hotel tourists gasp in amazement as fountains shoot 500-feet into the air, performing a spectacular dance in time to the music of Frank Sinatra, observed Nick Allen on a recent visit for
The Sunday Telegraph. Gondolas ferry honeymoon couples around canals modelled on those of Venice, Roman-themed swimming pools stretch for acres, and thousands of sprinklers keep golf courses lush in the middle of the desert, he marveled.
He should have seen it 15 years ago. It was then that the city administration revealed that their 113 square miles could not support residential and commercial lawns on the scale dictated by water supplies. It was no gamble. Something had to give.
So it came to pass that commencing in 1999, Las Vegas has offered $1.50 per square foot of turf torn up. To date, 165 million square feet of turf has been removed.
The city has also placed limits on turf installations. None is now allowed in new front yards. New turf installed in side and rear yards may not exceed 50 per cent or 100 square feet, whichever is greater. New turf is prohibited in common areas of apartments and condos except for public and privately owned parks as long as turf area is not less than 10 feet. As for non-residential developments – forget it: New turf installation is
verboten unless specifically permitted by approval of land use application.
In what might be a sign of the times for other similarly inflicted urban areas, the rules and regulations also cover landscape watering, vehicle washing, fountains and water features, golf course water budgets even mist systems. The latter are popular in the dry, arid climate to produce localized ‘fogs’ and so cool patios, decks and similar areas.
Las Vegas, like many other southwestern U.S. urban areas is encouraging xeriscapes. The market for artificial lawns is also booming: an entire website is available for those considering such at
Synthetic Lawns of Las Vegas.
Are all these conservation efforts working? Yes, but not enough: at 219 gallons of water per person per day, Las Vegas has one of the highest figures in the U.S. By contrast, residents of San Francisco use only 49 gallons.
The Golden State, however, is gripped by its own drought, bringing in its wake similarly severe water problems. Governor Brown sought to reduce water use by 20 percent below measures already in effect to no avail. Even under what passes as normal for California, Los Angeles and the surrounding area is technically a desert. As a result, residents are getting feisty towards lawns.
“If we’re serious about greatly reducing water use, it’s obvious the only way to accomplish this is to reduce the size of – or eliminate entirely – green lawns . . .” wrote Daniel Fink of Beverley Hills in a letter to the
Los Angeles Times. Others, however, believe that with 80 percent of the water being used by the state’s vast agricultural enterprises they should bear the brunt of cutbacks. Notwithstanding, a recent law dictates you can now be fined up to $500 a day for wasting water on lawns, landscapes and washing vehicles.
None of which bodes particularly well for adjoining Nevada, where at least one politician has threatened to obtain water from California by force if necessary. Some suggest that Las Vegas sink to a level it formerly was when Mormons set up a trading post there in 1851. It is doomed they say, to be deserted, left to the state’s official flower, sagebrush and its two official trees, single-leaf piñon and bristlecone pine with nary a blade of grass in sight.
