Generating Public Awareness of the Falling Water Levels at Lake Mead, Nevada. GALA Power & Light Co. Attn: Ginger Lukas

Transcription

1 Generating Public Awareness of the Falling Water Levels at Lake Mead, Nevada GALA Power & Light Co. Attn: Ginger Lukas Las Vegas, Nevada was once known around the world as a quintessentially American den of iniquity, existing almost solely because of the State of Nevada s loose laws surrounding gambling. This path of least resistance created a lush desert oasis that has entertained generations of people for over a century. Over the last 50 years, it has become its own notorious brand, one that still draws millions seeking to escape their everyday lives in search of all things hedonistic and bad for them. Though mostly scrubbed of its nastier crust in recent decades, the vintage, lit neon signs that once helped to perpetuate this image remain iconic, and are a huge tourist pull. Though most of them are no longer in operation, some can still be seen in the form a museum dedicated to preserving and maintaining this history for future generations. This PDF deals with two concepts 1. The idea that Las Vegas main crisis in 2017 is not its nefarious image or branding, but is instead an infrastructural problem. Lake Mead, formerly the largest body of collected water in the United States, supplying water (and power, through the Hoover Dam) to 20 million people in Arizona, California, and Nevada, has seen record lows since The water levels in the reservoir are perpetually below what the intake systems that process this important resource can reach, and local communities are constantly under drought watch, last year beating the drought advisory by four feet. All residents of the area are constantly seeking ways to combat rampant water waste in the face of large fines. It has become a huge problem as more citizens, tourists, and farmers flock to an area that was entirely desert landscape before large-scale westward expansion in the United States. Water and its built delivery systems are the most important resources in the American Southwest 2, and it seems this pressing issue is oft overlooked. 2. The Neon Museum in Las Vegas was looking for more room 3, as they have outgrown their current facility and are seeking more opportunities to showcase more important historic signage. They are currently building a new facility to house 30 signs not currently on view, including those from the Las Vegas Club, Spearmint Rhino, Longhorn Casino, Sahara Saloon, Opera House Saloon and Riviera. Many of these signs have been held in the museum s storage facility due to lack of available space at the existing Neon Boneyard. 4 We would like to solve both of these problems at once, combining structures that are already in use to generate public awareness of this destabilizing issue within the Las Vegas brand as well as helping to support the anthropologic, creative, and historic reasons the city exists in the first place. We thought the best practice would be to install the neon signs currently being held in the museum s storage facility around the high water mark at Lake

2 Mead, allowing people to really get a graspable sense of the scale of just how low the water has gotten in the last 35 years, as well as pulling more visibility to the area. Detail of the iconic shoe from the Silver Slipper Casino, installed on top of one of the intake towers of the Hoover Dam:

3 Las Vegas neon on the strip, 1982 (around the last time Lake Mead was full to the brim). This brightly lit, overwhelming aesthetic remains a desirable form of nostalgia for many millions of people, some of whom congregate online to swap Old Vegas history in the form of stories, photos, and hotel/casino ephemera from an era that many would deem a golden age in the American cultural lexicon. One of the boneyard signs to be installed at Lake Mead, as seen in the mock-up above:

4 Here is a graphic (dated 2014) from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) detailing just how far the lake levels have fallen since 1998, the last time the reservoir was anywhere near capacity:

5 The highest rust-colored ring on the concrete dam structure shown in the top photo marks the height of the water when the lake is near capacity. The top of the dark ring around the water intake towers at image left in the foreground indicates the height of the water level on December 21, 2012 the highest the lake has been this decade. At the time, water levels were down 95.4 feet from 1998 levels. The white bathtub ring seen on the rocky sides of the reservoir in the bottom photo shows the historical high water level in the reservoir. The ring is a coating of minerals, deposited on the rocks while they were covered by water. 5 The long-term prospects for Colorado River supply are dire. Demand for its water among the seven states of the river basin - chiefly California and Arizona - hopelessly outstrips the supply, and that has been the case since the seven states in its basin worked out an allocation deal in That interstate compact, brokered by then-commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover, was based on an estimate of river flows that was flagrantly inflated and never has been met. Since then, the recognition of claims from Mexico and Southwestern Indian tribes has only increased demand. Climate change and drought are making the crisis worse. 6 It is our belief that by combining already-powerful tourist forces the still-pristine, beautiful valley of Lake Mead as it flows behind the massive Hoover Dam with the addition of not currently public historic signage from the invaluable collection of the Las Vegas Neon Museum we can generate enough tourist, activist, and citizen awareness, then activity (eventual solutions) to solve this looming infrastructure crisis once and for all. Hedonists need sewers, too, perhaps more than most people. Democrat, Republican, Clinton, Trump, black, white, Latino everyone needs to pay attention to water s delivery to one s home tap, as you are only as strong as your weakest link, and one s body is 75% fluid. Lazy modern living and overbuilt public infrastructure from the 1950s has allowed us all as a people the luxury of forgetting how our basic utilities arrive in our homes, something we may not be able to take for granted as such in coming decades. A public campaign to relocate some of the flash and fire of Old Vegas to highlight something that desperately needs to be looked at should be a seamlessly implemented, fast, essential concept to the future of human life in the Southwest. 1 Lake Mead American Aqueduct: The Great California Water Saga Neon Museum unveils first stage of expansion plans Neon Museum Expansion Western Drought Brings Lake Mead to Lowest Levels Since it was Built As Lake Mead Dwindles, Can an Interstate Water War Be Far Behind? -