Las Vegas, Nevada: Gambling with water in the desert

Las Vegas Valley is the fastest growing metropolitan area in the United States (U.S. Department of Commerce, accessed July 27, 1999). The accelerating demand for water to support the rapid growth of the municipal-industrial sector in this desert region is being met with imported Colorado River System supplies and local ground water. The depletion of once-plentiful groundwater supplies is contributing to land subsidence and ground failures. Since 1935, compaction of the aquifer system has caused nearly 6 feet of subsidence and led to the formation of numerous earth fissures and the reactivation of several surface faults, creating hazards and potentially harmful impacts to the environment. In the near future, the current water supplies are expected not to satisfy the anticipated water demand. The federally mandated limit placed on imported water supplied from nearby Lake Mead, a reservoir on the Colorado River, will likely force a continued reliance on ground water to supplement the limited imported-water supplies. Water supply-and-demand dynamics in this growing desert community will likely perpetuate problems of land subsidence and related ground failures in Las Vegas Valley, unless some balanced use of the ground-water resource can be achieved.