Word: las
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Las Vegas the only sound that rivals the clink of coins is the rush of water. At the Mirage, a flashy hotel complex on the Strip, a cascading 39-ft.- high waterfall gushes 135 gal. per min. Fountains adorn the entranceways to banks, hotels and condominiums. Development communities market "waterfront living" on artificial lakes that sit like giant puddles in the middle of the Mojave. Even the names -- Montego Bay, Shoreline Estates, The Lakes -- reinforce the illusion that water flows abundantly in this desert oasis...
That image has fueled growth and filled the coffers of the world's most famous gambling mecca. But to people living in the surrounding rural counties, it is a symbol of the wastefulness and city-slicker hubris that have pitted them against Las Vegas in a bitter fight over the most precious resource in the West. Faced with a drought and a water shortage that threaten future growth, Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, has applied for rights to all the unallocated underground water within its boundaries and surrounding Nye, White Pine and Lincoln counties...
Officials at the Las Vegas Valley Water District insist that they had no alternative in 1989, when they filed 146 applications for water rights with the state engineer. Nevada's share of federally allotted water from the Colorado River cannot sustain growth in the booming oasis, which attracts 5,000 newcomers a month. Thirsty California, they argue, was positioned to jump in and stake a claim to the unused water. "It was our only Nevada source," says Pat Mulroy, general manager of the water district...
...unlikely alliance of ranchers and farmers, rural politicians, environmentalists, Native Americans and federal agencies. More than 3,600 protests have been filed with the state engineer, who begins hearings in a few months. No one knows exactly what the long-term impact of pumping so much water -- Las Vegas has requested 200,000 acre-ft. per year (an acre-ft. is 326,000 gal., or enough to cover 1 acre with 1 ft. of water) -- will be on the complex hydrologic system of the area. Environmentalists say excessive pumping will dry up springs and wetlands, threatening numerous endangered species, plants...
...surprise to many researchers last week when a pair of American geologists reported that Antarctica may not always have been so distant. In fact, about 570 million years ago, the scientists estimate, today's South Pole was probably less than a thousand miles from the future site of Las Vegas...