Comments on: Gag me with a high rise

By: spring snail

spring snail — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 23:40:37 +0000

Other options beside a pipeline from a quickly overdrafted Snake Valley aquifer would be rooftop rainwater harvesting and filtration (sand barrels, charcoal, etc…) to collect rainwater in underground cisterns prior to evaporation from hardpan surfaces or losses to evapotranspiration on its journey down the Las Vegas Wash. Direct capture of rooftop rainwater would also reduce the runoff that leads to flash flooding in summer. This would also provide jobs and help residents gain independence in controlling their own water. The average amount harvested from one inch of rain is 600 gallons per 1,000 square feet of rooftop, that would give Las Vegas 2,100 per year on their 3.5 inch yearly average.

The rooftop rainwater harvesting systems would be permanant fixtures outside of changing the filter medium periodically, whereas the pipeline to nowhere would give about 10 years maximum before the aquifer was overdrafted and the multimillion dollar pipeline useless. The SNWA already lost 600,000 dollars in 2009 on their sheep ranch adventures up in Spring Valley, their excuse for monitoring the water levels in hopes they can extract the maximum amount before disaster hits. The claim by Gen. “Pipeline Pat” Mulroy of drought emergency is covering their true intent of pushing suburban sprawl further out into the desert, with the promise of “free water for all”. Harvey Whittemore’s team of developers at Coyote Springs are glad that Harry Reid is tucked safely in their pockets, how convenient that they happen to be initial funders of the pipeline and also live right alongside the route. Future benefits for anyone? Another coincidence that Harry Reid’s son also works for Whittemore? When the Democrats act like Republicans, we’re all in real trouble!!

By: EmilyGreen

EmilyGreen — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 02:31:14 +0000

Jane, thank you for commenting. I am not criticizing LEED green building standards in this article (though I wish those standards paid more attention to water). The problem as I see it with celebrating CityCenter during Copenhagen is that this development, in addition to two decades of explosive growth and constant reinvention in Las Vegas, has all been predicated on the idea that it’s OK to sacrifice the Great Basin. That’s always been the back up plan behind the formation of the SNWA and the Nevada land bills. Yet if you look at a map at where the most intense effects of climate change will be felt, then throwing cold desert resources at explosive growth in the Mojave looks insane. It’s the elephant in the living room. – Thanks again for writing. -Emily

By: EmilyGreen

EmilyGreen — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 01:28:17 +0000

From Jane Feldman, Energy Chair, Toiyabe Chapter of the Sierra Club, via e-mail:

Consider this.
A huge proportion of the water used in Las Vegas is on outdoor landscaping.
The outdoor landscaping in City Center is miniscule. When the water per capita is calculated for City Center, it is tiny, tiny, tiny.

There is a lot that City Center has done right.

It’s compact, mixed use, on previously disturbed land, in the core of the metro area.
It’s on public transportation lines.
It’s LEED certified, for pete sake…!!!

We need to be celebrating and shining spotlights on this development as the Way to Do It – in the desert and every urban area.

Unless you launch a major national population control program, prohibiting certain climates/places as uninhabitable, including mandatory child limits, you have to accommodate people somewhere. City Center uses the best of both engineering and urban design principles, with stellar results. Give credit where credit is due.

By: PAUL F MLLER

PAUL F MLLER — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 22:11:35 +0000

While Las Vegas chose to promote itself as the symbol of lavishness, ostentatious, opulence, sinful display of hedonism it is NOT the only city in the arid southwest to currently be living well beyond its ability to be sustainable.

While not perceived to mimic Las Vegas, the southwest towns of St George and Cedar City find themselves in dire need of additional water both hoping to tap into that pond called Lake Powell, complete with their own pipeline to secure their future.

One need only follow the route of the Colorado River and note the unprecedented growth along its banks to quickly conclude this water source is tapped well beyond its ability to provide long term sustainable water.

With more than 200 golf courses most requiring more than a million gallons per day especially in the summer to present lush “green” environment to its golfers, metro-Phoenix has little cause to point its finger at Las Vegas, though it routinely does.

Those of us living in the arid southwest have chosen not to heed even one lesson the passing legacy ancient civilizations left for us. With water deemed a commodity, it will be available only to those with sufficient means to afford it.

Name me a town in the arid southwest and I can find a project, perhaps not as grandiose as CityCenter in Las Vegas, but one whose impact in that region may be considered equally illogical.

Respectfully,

By: Richard Spotts

Richard Spotts — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 02:40:48 +0000

Excellent article! It is accurate, blunt, and insightful. Unfortunately, this insanity is not limited to Las Vegas’ shameless boosters. It is common elsewhere in the arid West. It boils down to the dangerous combination of worship of the Almighty Dollar and economic dependence on continued, limitless growth without facing the eventual consequences. While this is also the ideology of a malignant tumor, our “leaders” don’t seem to notice or care. When the day of reckoning arrives, this will be a massive demonstration of social Darwinism. Of course, the people harmed will only have themselves to blame because they kept their “leaders” in power and refused to see the writing on the wall.