LETTER: The Las Vegas water problem is solvable

More frequently, we are bombarded by water shortage stories, and correctly so as we watch the Lake Mead bathtub ring grow. Only Mother Nature knows when this drought will end, if ever. This could be the Big One. If it is, we can’t conserve our way out of it.

The Las Vegas water cartel — county commissioners who also sit on all the water boards — makes me feel like a Burmese python meal. With each squeeze of another drop to conserve, the noose tightens more. And for what? To fuel additional development and to fatten the tax base. I would take calls for water conservation more seriously if county officials would say to the next resort casino developer or housing tract builder, “Let’s tap the brakes on your proposal until we can figure out this Colorado River situation.”

Giving up more turf is counterproductive to our environmental health. Replacement hardscape and xeriscape make us warmer, promote additional airborne pollution in our windy valley and only fatten the wallets of those who have turf to surrender. And generally, they don’t need our rate-payer money, which underwrites the rebate programs.

For centuries the Colorado River regularly misbehaved with snow melt-fueled spring runoff that damaged much downstream. Visionaries with the fortitude to tame the river did so by building Hoover Dam and other facilities, financing it in the middle of the Great Depression. In the post-World War II 1950s, President Eisenhower initiated the U.S. highway system. His point person on the project, Gen. Lucius D. Clay said, “It was evident we needed better highways. We needed them for safety. We needed them for defense purposes, if that should ever be necessary. And we needed them for the economy. Not just as a public works measure, but for future growth.” We need to manage our water systems for the same reasons. We need leadership to interconnect our water basins so those that flood regularly can augment those that are increasingly dry.

Earth is a contained system and is two-thirds covered in water. No water escapes. The drops that quenched dinosaurs and cavemen are the same drops we now use. We have a water logistics problem. It’s fixable.