Arizona officials love reminding us we prepared for the Colorado River crisis — banking water, building conservation programs, negotiating shortage deals. But look at Las Vegas.
Southern Nevada spent nearly $2 billion building an intake that can pull water even below dead pool. It also imposed real limits: paying residents to tear out grass, capping pools, restricting golf courses and outdoor watering. The logic: indoor water returns to Lake Mead; water sprayed on decorative grass is gone forever. So Las Vegas targeted actual losses.
Between 2002 and 2025, Southern Nevada added nearly 900,000 residents while cutting river consumption roughly 40 percent — proof growth doesn't have to mean rising water use.
Arizona keeps celebrating conservation while approving developments that lock in demand for generations. If Las Vegas can grow while cutting use 40 percent, why does Arizona keep approving growth in a shrinking-river emergency?
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Disclaimer: As submitted to the Arizona Daily Star.
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