THE GREAT WESTERN DROUGHT: QUIT ADDING STRAWS TO THE LAKE!
We’re way past ringing the alarm bells. The fire from the sky is here now. We’re about to get burned. It’s time to do something about it.
Las Vegas cannot go on like this. We can’t keep adding thousands of new homes and condos and apartments every month. We can’t keep building strip malls and sprawling fast food joints. We can’t keep watering palm trees and filling swimming pools like we live in the wetlands. The water supply isn’t there anymore. What we are doing is UNSUSTAINABLE. It’s mass SUICIDE.
Graph Shows Troubling Levels of Drought This Year
Red Alert: Lake Mead at Lowest Level Since Hoover Dam Opened
Lake Mead dropped another 8 feet this past year. Eight feet. That’s across 247 square miles. Lake Mead the lowest level it’s been since it was constructed in the early 1930s. Now, electrical generation is even an issue because water can’t be released as regularly from the dam. Doing nothing is madness. We must act. Now!
NO MORE NEW LAND FOR DEVELOPMENT:
I propose that the BLM sell no more land to the city, nor developers. We can’t keep building into the mountains. There’s not enough water. Hell, there’s NO WATER. It costs more money to pump water from the valley to the highlands and wastes more precious resources. Once all current contracts are complete, THERE SHOULD BE NO NEW DEVELOPMENT anywhere outside of the city’s existing boundaries, without special permission. The federal government must step in and take a leadership role here: No new public land sold off on the cheap to irresponsible developers. Period. End of story.
Any new development MUST be constructed within exiting lands and zoned areas. There’s plenty of space in North Las Vegas, part of the far East Side, and certainly in the inner city. Use it wisely. Las Vegas isn’t running out of land. The local economy can still thrive using what we got.
TAX ALL NEW RESIDENTS AND BUSINESSES:
Nevada (or the Las Vegas metro area) should also impose a new tax on all new residents. You want to sell your house in California and move here where it’s much cheaper? Fine. It will cost you 5 percent tax on the first five years you live here. Welcome! And use all that money for water reclamation and management. Same with new businesses. Do you want to move here? Great. If you don’t like the restrictions here, then move your business to Pahrump.
I never would have thought it possible, but Las Vegas has actually led the American Southwest in conservation. While Calfornia wastes obscene amounts of water for growing things like rice and walnuts, the citizens of Las Vegas have reacted responsibly. We should be proud of our conservation efforts.
Unfortunately, we can’t do much to pressure states that waste their water (California and Arizona, I’m talking to you) but we here in Nevada can do the right thing when it comes to our own allocation of Colorado River water. We’ve managed this well to a point, but now the crisis is here. It’s time to clamp down, impose restrictions, tax the users and abusers of water waste, and GET SERIOUS about this problem.
TELL YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS TO ACT.
JOIN THE SIERRA CLUB’S FIGHT IN THIS CRITICAL TIME, CLICK HERE
We can’t keep adding straws to the lake.
READ MORE: STOP THE SPRAWL INTO RED ROCK CANYON