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Climate change to threaten Nevada water supplies

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 25, 2008 at 6:20 am

From the Reno Gazette-Journal:

Climate change could come with profound risk to Nevada’s water supplies and at great cost to the state’s economy, a new study asserts. The report released this week by the National Conference of State Legislatures and Center for Integrative Environmental Research concluded that rising temperatures associated with a warming climate could create “profound drought conditions” in Nevada, which was examined along with 11 other states around the country.

“Some of these impacts are already noticeable and it’s certainly not going to get better as climate change progresses,” said Daria Karetnikov, a researcher at the University of Maryland who compiled the report.

By 2100, climate change brought about by greenhouse gas emissions could cause the average temperature in Nevada to increase by up to 4 degrees Fahrenheit in spring and fall and by up to 6 degrees in the summer and winter, the report said. The result will be changes in precipitation and evaporation patterns and decreased water availability statewide, the report contends.

Costs could be high. Citing a 2004 study by the Southern Nevada Water Authority, the report said scaling back development to manage diminishing water resources could translate into a loss of $18.6 billion in tax revenue and $4.7 billion per year in lost wages. Water-based recreation bringing in more than $1 billion annually could also be damaged.

Some of the most dire impacts cited by the report would occur in the Las Vegas area. The report cites studies by the Scripps Institution for Oceanography indicating there is a 10 percent chance that Lake Mead, the water source for 2 million people, could dry up by 2021 and a 50 percent chance it could go dry by 2050.

Read more from the Reno Gazette-Journal by clicking here.

July 25, 2008 · Filed Under Climate change & water supply, Las Vegas