Water, Water everywhere....NOT

The states in the west has a serious problem. They have a serious lack of water. Especially those states in the southwest, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, you get my drift. I've read a few articles in the last month or so about how Nevada, specifically Las Vegas, is fighting for more water. At the end of March the Nevada State engineer issues a decision to allow the Southern Nevada Water Authority to pump 84,000 acre feet of water from 4 rural valleys. The water in some areas will be pumped as far as 300 miles to get to Vegas. Currently Vegas gets about 90% of its water from Lake Mead. As you probably know, Lake Mead has issues of its own. You've probably seen pictures of the lake were there is a HUGE white stripe around the edge. That's because the water level of the lake has fallen over 120ft, which is about 35% of its capacity. There are docks sitting in mud and sand because the water level has retreated miles from the previous shoreline. Last year the lake did rise about 30ft from the wet weather and large snowfall, but this summer is predicted to be just as dry and hot as previously and the lake will be back down to previous levels. The drought that created this problem started in 2000, and hasn't relented. So, you ask, what is the big deal. Vegas is dry, always has been always will be, what's so different about that? The stupidity of the predicament is what annoys me. As I noted earlier Vegas has been granted access to water elsewhere, other than Lake Mead. About a month ago I came across an article from the Las Vegas Journal that talked about how stalled housing developments, of which Vegas has many, are expected to WASTE 3 days worth of water. After the housing bubble burst, and it happened on a large scale in Vegas, the Las Vegas Valley Water District had branches of treated water pipelines going to dozens of unfinished subdivisions. Without circulation the water would sit in the pipes and the residual chemicals would degrade, making the water undrinkable. In 2009 the water authority gave the owners a choice: pump enough water to flush out the pipes every three days or be disconnected from the system. If the owners are disconnected from the system, they have to pay to be reconnected at a high cost. So, this policy has created a problem where water is wasted constantly in a desert town, that has just asked for, and received, 84,000 acre-ft of water that will be shipped over 300 miles. now, lets do a little math. Sorry, I'm an engineer, everything is math to me :) On average, an American consumes 176 gallons of water a day (yes that is A LOT!!!). So say these houses have 4 people in each, that equals 704 g/day per family home. Now, these pipes have to be flushed every three days, that's 2112 g/3day per family home. Now, lets just say that there are 10 houses in each development (I'm all about easy math) that is 21120 gallons per development. Articles I've read on the Vegas housing market states that DOZENS of housing developments have been stalled. So, I multiplied by 12 to get one dozen developments that include at least 10 houses and that was 253,440 gallons, Since the articles said dozens, I did a ballpark of 10 (more easy math), there are probably lots more than that, but I don't live there so I can't drive around and check. Which leads to a grand total of 2534400 gallons of water that is wasted in 3 days in Vegas, and that is just for ONE pipe clearing event. And it's probably a a low estimate. This converts to 7.8 acre-ft. EVERY THREE DAYS! Each year has 365 days in it (last time I checked). If water is wasted every three days, then it's wasted 121.7 days out of the year. This equals ~950 acre-ft of water wasted a year. Let's just round that up to 1000, cause you know that there are more than 10 dozen stalled housing developments and there are more than 10 houses in each development, probably more like 20, in each category. I'm not sure what the duration of the 84,000 acre-ft request was, so I don't know if it was a year or total and how long it was going to take to remove. Comparably speaking 1000 isn't even close to 84,000, but to my way of thinking you need to start/stop somewhere. If the city of Vegas is wasting water in this idiotic way, how else are they wasting water?