"The Water Use Myth" in Las Vegas

It is almost impossible to visit Las Vegas and not to go watching the majestic dancing water-fountains of the Bellagio Hotel, “the most ambitious, choreographically complex water feature ever,” as it is stated at the Bellagio Hotel’s website. After the immediate admiration of the graceful fountain-show, a second thought may strike you: the presence of the world’s most lavish and ambitious water feature in the middle of the desert just doesn’t make sense.

Fig 1. Fountains of Bellagio, photo courtesy of Bellagio, Las Vegas. (http://www.bellagio.com/attractions/fountains-of-bellagio.aspx) 

(More than 1,200 dancing fountains on a lake of more than 8.5 acres of water, Highest point: 460 feet; Span: more than 1,000 feet, Music ranging from Luciano Pavarotti and Andrea Bocelli to Michael Jackson and The Beatles, Performances every 30 minutes, 7 days a week)

It is good to know that despite the popular belief about the wasteful lifestyle in Las Vegas, which is mostly implied by the presence of the magnificent hotels and casinos, in 2010 the city was ranked “the wisest water smart city” in the country. For the past two decades, after the city officials raised the residents’ and business-owners’ concerns about the water shortage and upcoming water issues in the Valley, both stakeholders and residents have started sustainability initiatives and adopted water efficiency programs to tackle the water shortage. 

  

For the next two posts I will talk about water consumption and adopted water conservation programs throughout Las Vegas. I will start this discussion with the entertainment sector. 

Water consumption by sectors

Water consumption records in Las Vegas show that Las Vegas Casino-Hotels (Fifteen of the world's 25 largest hotels) with elaborate water features are not the real water-waster in the city. According to Doug Bennett, conservation director at the SNWA, only 7% of the city’s water goes to the hotels and casinos with 43% being delivered to single-family residential accounts and 15% going to multi-family residential units. Commercial and industrial users with14% of consumption stand at second place while golf courses with 8% of water use are at third place. 

Fig 2. SNWA water sales by sector, 2004. (Photo courtesy of Western Resource Advocates)

 http://www.westernresourceadvocates.org/media/pdf/FINAL%203%20City.pdf

In fact, outdoor sprinklers that water lawns and golf courses beyond the Strip account for 70% of southern Nevada’s water use, while "the entire Las Vegas Strip uses 3 percent of our water resources," according to Patricia Mulroy, general manager of the SNWA. This fact becomes more interesting when we understand that hotel visitors account for the 14% of the population of the Valley at any given time. 

On the other hand, most of the water that is piped to the hotels for the room-use and other amenities is then purified and recycled and goes back to Lake Mead. Hotels’ landscaping and cooling towers consume 20% of the piped water which is the exact opposite of the residential users who use 70% of their water outside, according to Mulroy. 

Fig 3. "The entire Las Vegas Strip uses 3 percent of our water resources, and they are the economic driver in the state of Nevada, bar none,"Patricia Mulroy, general manager of the SNWA. (Photo courtesy of NPR)

Hotel/casinos water-use

There are discrepancies among the hotel-casinos’ relative water use. Usually the amount of water that every hotel uses, depends on the size of the property, landscaping irrigation, its HVAC system and amenities such as swimming pools and water features that the hotel offers. Figure 4 shows the top 20 hotel/casino water-users in 2003.

Fig 4. 2003 top 20 hotel-casino water users.

According to the table, MGM Grand, the biggest hotel in Las Vegas, uses more water than any other hotel. However, on a per room basis it shows a modest amount of consumption among the others due to its adopted water conservation programs.

On the other hand, our assumption about the Bellagio's consumption is not all wrong since this hotel uses more water per room than any other hotel on the Strip by far. That doesn’t mean that it closes its eyes to the water issue completely, but the Bellagio’s conservation measures has led to millions of gallons of water saving each year. Also, the hotel benefits from groundwater for running its water fountains. “We are consuming less water than when it was functioning as a golf course when it was the old Dunes (hotel)." (Jaime Cruz, energy manager with the MGM Mirage Corporation) 

Hotel-casinos’ water conservation programs

In the early 1990’s, after the construction of  “the Lakes”, a residential development around three-miles of artificial shore-lines, and the Mirage Resort water volcano, the new water chief, Pat Malroy, warned the casino owners about water consumption. She told casino owners and developers that unless they learned how to use less water, the city would run out by 2006 and without water there would be no business (according to Alan Feldman, vice president of the Mirage Resort.)

Fig 5. The Lakes, Las Vegas. (Photo Courtesy of NPR) (www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10939792)

Members of the casino industry were determined to become the pioneers and leaders in water conservation in Las Vegas. Following this prompt, Casino owner Steve Wynn built a water recycling plant underneath the Mirage Volcano and the Treasure Island Pirate Lagoon. Other casinos joined the movement gradually after that. The MGM Mirage Company installed low-flow bathroom fixtures inside its 11 Las Vegas hotels and drip irrigation outside.

Since then, many hotels have tried to develop their water efficiency programs by installing low-flow showerheads, low-flow toilets (saving 1.5 gallons per flush), reclaiming gray water (waste water from laundry, bathing, cleaning and cooking) and converting to “water-smart” landscaping. For example, the MGM Grand has converted more than half of the total acreage of its turf to rock-mulch and xeriscaping (landscaping using low water consumption) that leads to about 80% saving in annual irrigation water. In a similar action, Mandley Resort Group has removed a waterfall from The Adventure Dome (at Circus Circus) and has set timers on the fountains at Mandalay Bay so that less water evaporates (according to John Marz, Mandley spokesman.) 

Today, a high percentage of the hotels on the Strip strive to reduce energy and water consumption. In 2011, for the second year in a row, MGM Resorts International was awarded the highest-ranked casino on Newsweek Magazine’s 500 most environmentally responsible U.S. companies. 12 MGM properties also have won awards under the Green Key Eco-Rating Program. 

According to Malroy, the city is generally content with the consumption and conservation programs the hotel-casinos have in place. "They need to do more, but only because of the leadership role they need to play, it's a symbolic value," she says. On the other hand, they are the economic driver of the region and continue to be the top revenue generators in the entire state. Given these facts and regarding water consumption records, it seems that the new conservation programs target other sectors especially residential units. The city recently has tried to control water consumption among the residents through coercive policies and rebates. In the next post I will attend to water use and adopted conservation programs in Las Vegas residential sector.