Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

EDITORIAL:

As Lake Mead water levels fall, government must rise to the occasion

Call For Moratorium On Dam And Diversion Project

Steve Marcus

A view of the Lake Mead bathtub ring near Hoover Dam Thursday, July 15, 2021.

Since the 1979 release of “Mad Max,” the film and television industry has enjoyed a near-constant chorus of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic blockbusters. Yet even in this genre, drought has remained almost entirely relegated to storylines of the past — retellings of stories from the Dust Bowl or Africa or other drought-driven famines.

But last week, an image emerged on Twitter and in the news cycle worthy of the opening act of a post-apocalyptic Hollywood blockbuster: The primary Lake Mead water intake for the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA), clearly visible above the water line.

SNWA has known for years that Lake Mead’s water level was likely to drop to this point.It completed a new $650 million low-lake pumping station in 2020 in preparation for just such an event. With the new pumping station in place, Las Vegas will continue to have access to fresh water from Lake Mead even if the lake level drops below the point at which water can be released downstream to California, Arizona and Mexico.

Yet the image of the exposed intake is powerful, in part because it underscores the feeling that this drought is different. Rather than being temporary, it begs the question of whether this is the opening scene of a new normal, setting the stage for the conditions under which we will live in the desert southwest for years to come.

A drought can begin and end. But there is no reason to see an end to this. In other words, we’re not in a drought. We’re in a new climate — one that is hostile to the entire Southwest.

The Colorado River and Lake Mead supply about 90% of Southern Nevada’s drinking water and about 15% of California’s. It’s also the centerpiece of the Central Arizona Project (CAP), Arizona’s single largest resource for renewable water supplies. Already, farms are failing in Pinal County, Ariz., because of forced cutbacks in CAP water. It’s a contagion that will spread.

Moreover, while Hoover Dam only generates a small percentage of Las Vegas’ power, it is a significant contributor to the rest of Nevada, as well as Arizona and California.A choice worthy of “Mad Max” is on the horizon: water to drink or electricity to the grid.

While neither Las Vegas’ water nor power supplies are in immediate danger, an exodus of climate refugees, forced out of southwestern cities due to water and power shortages, could have dramatic impacts on Las Vegas and Nevada’s future. This future is closer than we may care to admit.

According to the World Bank, widespread climate-related crop failure has already led to the relocation of more than 10 million people from the African Sahel and Southeast Asia. In the United States, Indigenous populations have once again been forced to relocate as sea-level rise and erosion have claimed tribal lands and communities in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Heirloom crops are unable to grow in portions of the southern great plains. And locally, the Navajo Nation’s drinking water supply is dangerously low, foreshadowing a future for Las Vegas in which even SWNA’s deeper, third water intake could eventually run dry, leaving millions without reliable access to drinking water.

In Hollywood films, dangerous foes and circumstances are often repelled by a team of unlikely allies, setting aside age-old disagreements and coming together to fight for the good of humanity. Picture Rocky and Apollo coming together to defeat Clubber Lang, the United Federation of Planets and Klingons forming an alliance to counter the Romulans, the whole world banding together in “Independence Day,” or Tina Fey helping Lindsay Lohan go to the dance at the end of “Mean Girls.”

Those Hollywood moments are inspired by some real moments from U.S. history in which politicians from opposite sides of the aisle came together to achieve big things. Through bipartisan cooperation, the United States created the Social Security program, passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, put people on the moon, and negotiated the original Colorado States Compact that led to the construction of the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead.

Unfortunately, lately it feels as though bipartisan compromise is a thing of the past — relegated to history books and Hollywood fiction.

But for the West to survive, we will need to work together and identify bold, visionary leaders who are willing to compromise for the good of all the West, not just their state, their party or their voters. Democratic leaders from California and New Mexico will need to sit across the table and be truly open to hearing from Republicans from Utah and Wyoming. Elected leaders in purple states such as Nevada, Arizona and Colorado will need to work across party lines to build coalitions within their state legislatures that can ratify new terms and new agreements. All of the region’s tribal leaders need to be part of this discussion and taken seriously as important stakeholders. And a divided Senate, and likely soon to be divided federal legislature, will need to recognize that water and power are necessities of all people, not just those of one political stripe or another.

Beyond negotiating how much each state will consume, success requires us to negotiate on how much each state will conserve.

Unlike a fictional Hollywood blockbuster, the lives and livelihoods of real people hang in the balance of our policy decisions regarding the Colorado River and Lake Mead. Our future depends upon our real-life elected leaders demonstrating the same ability to come together in the face of catastrophe as their Hollywood counterparts.

But it also depends on us. Rather than sitting in our seats munching popcorn and waiting for the hero to arrive, this particular movie has a part for all of us. We can conserve, we can educate, and we can demand our leaders take the long view to secure a future for the Southwest.