LAS VEGAS — The Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) has said that if drought conditions continue, the city of Las Vegas could be out of water, according to a February 11 lasvegasnow.com news report.

Pat Mulroy, the head of the SNWA, told Nevada lawmakers on February 11 that extended drought conditions potentially could impact the water authority’s ability to use its current two intakes on Lake Mead, and that while there is a third intake project in the works, it has encountered financial problems.

Lake Mead is the huge reservoir behind the Hoover Dam in the Colorado River that supplies Las Vegas and other metropolitan areas such as Phoenix and Los Angeles. Scientists agree that the supply is dwindling, but there has not yet been a consensus as to when the supply will run dry, as WaterTech Online® has reported.

Mulroy told lawmakers, “If the drought continues another two years, we lose our second intake. At this point, Southern Nevada loses 90 percent of its water supply.”

An SNWA spokesman later sent a correction to what Mulroy told lawmakers, saying it will take six years, rather than two years, for the continued drought to render the second intake useless, lasvegasnow.com reported.

The water authority has begun a $1 billion project to build a third intake that extends deeper into the lake. According to Mulroy, the financial situation surrounding this project “couldn’t be more precarious.”

Water conservation efforts, as well as the home foreclosure crisis, have slashed the amount paid by water customers, the article said, noting that sales of public land for capital projects also have all but ended. In addition, sales tax revenues have dropped.

The $480 million that SNWA now has in the bank is needed to complete the current third intake project, Mulroy said.

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