Quote:
Originally Posted by sopas ej
I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but I thought Nevada was the state that has the most land owned by the federal government, like 85% or something? Maybe that's why Las Vegas is is surrounded by no development, apart from it being in the middle of a desert of course. |
For Vegas is is a combo of government owned land and water. Land sales do happen and is why development has been able to expand where it is. For water all developments have two options. Either they use ground water or tap into the infrastructure getting water from and then back to the Colorado river. Ground water is very limited and hence why not much happens outside the Las Vegas valley. For the piped water things have slowly expanded but are now reaching the base of the mountain ranges that mostly circle the valley.
Even if large tracts of land outside the Las Vegas valley were available for development not much would happen due to lack of water. Coyote Springs is a perfect example of this. They have the land but don't have the water and hence not much has happened. A rural community without much water has little options to even exist let alone persist.
Note for Colorado river water that the waste water is sent back to treatment plants and then back to Lake Mead. For water used in homes and businesses 90% of the waste water recovered and sent back to the lake. So at least that water use is mostly solved. In simple terms if the waste water flows into the server system then 90% gets recovered. It if doesn't then it is mostly lost to evaporation. Las Vegas uses more river water than it has allocated and has for decades. The trick is that it gets a credit for all the water it sends back.