![]() It’s now more than 3m and receives tens of millions of tourists a year. “The joke is that Nevada’s representative was drunk,” said Pellegrino, who was born in 1983, when the state’s population was barely 900,000. Lake Mead’s level dropped under 1,075ft in June, barely a third full, triggering what will be the first ever cutbacks under a seven-state agreement on sharing the water from the Colorado River, which is harnessed by the Hoover dam to create the reservoir.ĭifferent states get different water allocations and Nevada is a victim of its depopulated history, getting just 300,000 acre-feet of water a year (by comparison California gets 4.4m acre-feet) under an agreement struck before the Hoover dam was completed in the 1930s. Pellegrino said the recent escalation of the drought has been “very scary” for some Vegas residents, although she insists the water authority has planned for this moment. We are the driest city in the United States, in the driest state in the United States,” said Colby Pellegrino, deputy manager of resources for the Southern Nevada Water Authority. But Las Vegas, called “The Meadows” in Spanish due to its natural springs that were pumped dry by the 1960s, is at least aware of its setting in a place so arid that only a few small creosote bushes and tumbleweeds can survive here naturally. “Some people just want to recreate home, where they grew up with grass.” The new law, along with a financial incentive given to homeowners to replace thirsty grass with more hardy desert plants and rocks, is an acknowledgment that climate change won’t easily allow the imposition of a verdant green oasis upon a bone-dry desert basin.Ī city that contains a huge replica of the Eiffel tower, sprawling golf courses and a simulacrum of Venetian canals complete with gondolas can never be said to fit in with its surroundings. “That is just wasteful – the only person who walks on that is the person who cuts it,” said Kaye, jabbing a finger at a nearby grass verge median. ![]() Perry Kaye, a water waste investigator in Las Vegas, Nevada, issues a yellow warning flag because of a faulty sprinkler. In June, the state passed a law to rip up “non-functional” public turf in Las Vegas, such as grass planted beside roads or on roundabouts, over the next five years to save around 10% of city water use. There’s a growing realization, however, that such rules – no watering between 11am and 7pm, none at all on Sundays – won’t be sufficient as Nevada is squeezed by a drought that has escalated dangerously in 2021. ![]() Kaye planted a yellow flag next to the leak as a warning to the homeowners but a few taps on the computer mounted in his cruiser shows this property has a previous warning, so an $80 fine will be on its way. It’s so hot in Vegas – this July day’s temperature will breach 40C (104F) – that the errant water will evaporate within five minutes. “If everyone did this, quite a bit of water would be wasted.” ![]() ![]() “Look, we’ve got a little creek or stream here,” said Kaye, as he used his phone to video the water snaking on to the road. Water sprayed on to lawns and plants isn’t allowed to flow off the property, but that day a damaged sprinkler had caused water to cascade into the gutter, where the precious resource is lost. Kaye regularly hands out fines – they start at $80 and then double for each further offense – for the sort of rule-breaking he has spotted in Summerlin, a wealthy Las Vegas enclave where landscapers tend manicured grounds in the soaring heat. “A lot of people think because we are government workers we are not out there at that time but we are out 24/7, every day of the year,” he said. “The lake isn’t getting any fuller at this time so we need to conserve every single drop,” said Kaye, an energetic former US air force serviceman who wears a hi-vis vest and brandishes a badge as he does his rounds searching for violators. ![]()
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