Water and the transformation of a bioregion: The politics and environmental effects of increased water use in the Las Vegas Valley, 1907--1997 (Nevada)

This work explores the increases in water use in the Las Vegas Valley from 1907 to 1997. It commences with the drilling of the first artesian well in the valley and ends with the Southern Nevada Land Management Act. The paper is influenced most strongly by two works: William Cronon's Nature's Metropolis and Donald Worster's Rivers of Empire. It attempts to apply concepts from each---Cronon's "commodity flows" and "first and second nature" and Worster's "Hydraulic Society"---to the Las Vegas Valley and its use of water. It mainly focuses on the different mechanisms (legal, engineering or otherwise) citizens in the valley created to maintain an adequate supply of water and to continue economic growth. The artesian basin underneath the valley floor was their first source, then Lake Mead. As the area continues to grow, these sources have either been depleted or used at their maximum capacity. There have been adverse environmental consequences as a result, such as the replacement of native vegetation, wildlife encroachment, land subsidence, and the pollution of both ground and lake water. And in the 1990s Las Vegas has a fantasy quality to it, becoming the modern-day equivalent of John Opie's vision of renaissance Venice or Florence. But Las Vegas is too important an urban area to let wither and die. Instead new, more environmentally reasonable mechanisms must be implemented for the valley to continue to flourish in the twenty-first century and onward.