Southern Nevada gets almost 90% of its water from the Colorado River. Southern California also gets substantial water from the Colorado, which has the unenviable status of being the most litigated river in the world. The problem for Nevada is that it agreed to a small apportionment of Colorado River water back when their population was tiny. Southern Nevada gets 0.3 Million Acre Feet a Year (MAFY) while California gets a princely 4.4. This was a big mistake in the water wars for Nevada.
When we look at the record in geological time, we find that the rapid expansion of the “West” over the past hundred and fifty or so years has occurred during an abnormally wet period of time. With a tad less than a two year inventory of water on hand folks in these unsustainable desert lands are going to have to starting looking for someplace to move… will become Climate Refugees.
[My advice is the north coast of the Yukon. Central Oregon is a terrible place, we’ve got volcanoes, we’ve got drought, and we’re smack dab in the middle of a statewide forest fire just waiting to happen]
Too true and it was probably drought that led to the end of the Anasazi too.