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Today, we are going to talk about topic that
little controversial, especially here in the
desert, water. So. I know that just stirred a
lot of people up right away. All builders taking
all the water building so many homes and so wanted
to do a bit of a deep dive on this just so that
we could sort of lay the foundation for the awareness
of the water. Obviously there is a conservation
effort but some of that and then maybe answer
some of the questions that we get from people
about water and about building as how it relates
to water. So I'll let you I'll let you take our
resident expert. I'll let you take... And this
is not one I'll claim full expertise on because
it's a... I mean, there's geologists that study
this and there's a lot of things that go into
it. So I don't proclaim to be an expert, but
it is something that's relevant to the industry
and it's relevant to being a citizen of the Southwest.
You know, none of us are probably supposed to
be here. Yeah. I pretty much took some of the
most hostile land in the country and said, let's
put a couple more people. Right. Right. But,
but we do live here and we are realtors and you've
been a broker and now you're a builder and you're,
so you have a perspective that, that overlays
and we've answered these questions. and have
these conversations with so many people every
year as it relates to housing. So while you maybe
aren't an expert in terms of the geological sense,
I think in terms of the housing market and the
Las Vegas trends and what we understand about
the water conservation. And the greater Southwest,
yeah. Exactly, I think there's definitely an
expertise that follows. So you can wear the hat
on this. Okay, you're right, and I did get grilled
a lot on this even before I was a builder and
developer, and now I definitely get grilled on
it now. But I remember as a broker, people would
ask, well, were you worried about water? Yes.
The bottom line is that we're here. We weren't
probably not supposed to be in the middle of
the Mojave Desert or in the middle of Arizona
or in the middle of the Inland Empire. A lot
of those, a lot of California's desert and a
lot of population lives in desert or even arid
climates like Denver. Just really anything west
of the Mississippi is kind of technically arid.
I mean, I guess until you get to the Pacific
Northwest, but a lot of the population that west
of the Mississippi lives in arid climate. So
water is a huge concern. The bottom line is people
want to live here. There's a lot of industry,
there's a lot of economy here, a lot of economic
activity in these arid climates. So we have the
infrastructure. We definitely are built accordingly.
We can handle the development. And I think what
prompted me to, you know, inspired me to do this
episode was that every time I see new projects
approved, especially maybe on social media or...
newspaper, social media account, you'll see.
It's a game I have with myself. I hit the comments.
I won't scroll past three comments before the
W award comes in. Oh, it's gonna go, you're building
it all. Where are we gonna get all this water
from? Okay, well. And it's a real concern, so
I mean they have a valid point. I get it. But
when it's a 300 home, and to get into the weeds,
and I don't expect everyone to know all these
statistics, but if people could only realize
how kind of foolish they look, it's a, let's
just pretend it's an announcement that it's a
300 home, or 300 unit apartment complex. Okay.
Oh, where are they gonna get all this water from?
Okay. Las Vegas recycles, this sounds hyperbolic,
99 % of its interior. water usage so you could
run every faucet all day long flush every toilet
consistently and as long as it's hitting a drain
99 % of it gets recycled back into the water
supply so an apartment complex with 99 % of its
water use being used indoors maybe a little bit
of desert landscaping in the perimeter and then
99 % of that being recycled That's not where
we need to worry about our water. And the same
people probably leaving that hate mail are living
on golf courses with pools in their backyard.
That sounds familiar. That was incriminating.
You know, they're living, right, much more of
an environmental impact to have just a pool or
having a yard with grass. And even back to that
apartment, that's one pool for the three or six
or 700 people. Yes, exactly. It's a complex of
300. Exactly. It could be two to four people
living in each home. Right. Right, and the people
themselves in that water, you're losing just
- We have to put one in every backyard. Right,
exactly, right. We have consolidated efforts
in that regard. Right, right. Or when you look
at a new hotel, hotels on the strip recycle 99
% of their water. The strip, just in general,
only uses about 5 % of the county's, you know,
the metropolitan area's water. Resource, really?
Yeah, they only use about 5 % of it. And like
I said, 99 % of that is indoor. and 99 % of that
is recycled. So minus the fountain at the Bellagio,
which has its own artesian well, which is how
they got that approved. They're not resource
drainers. I mean, they probably use a lot of
power, a lot of AC. But in terms of water, they're
not big users. So overall, about 60 % of Clark
County's water is residential. And then approximately
40 % of that is indoor. So yes, the suburban
tract home uses a lot of water, uses a lot more
water than let's say an apartment complex. But
a newly built suburban tract home with desert
landscaping and a pool limited to 600 square
feet of surface area, it's just not a big water
user. In fact, the top 10 % of residential water
users use 35 % of the water. So that is a very
top heavy. The Sultan of Brunei has a home here
and right around the corner. And he had a 20,
that house address had a $26 ,000 water usage
fine because he just uses so much water. So it
just puts it into perspective. Not even just
the top 10%, just the top 10 top water users,
residential water users are using, you know,
60, 70 % of the water. So of the excess, you
know, excessive water. So because they're not
flushing their toilets 10 times more. It's all
exterior. So they're not only using a lot of
water, but it's wasting. It's gone. Right. It's
out of the system. So that's why I wanted to
talk about it because it just makes me furious
when people proclaim to be experts on water and
it's a new 400 unit apartment complex and they
have, you know, the outrage of where are we going
to get this water from? Secondly, Our water comes
from the Colorado River by way of it comes from
like me by way of the Colorado River and the
Colorado River about 18 % of the Colorado River
is used in cities and industry and You know everything
that we think of about 52 % of the Colorado River
goes to agriculture 19 % Just goes to the vegetation
and everything alongside the river that sucks
up water than all the riparian waves that kind
of zone, that coastal zone, all that thicket
and brush and everything that just kind of takes
water out of the river. That, just the bankside
growth takes up more than all the households
and the cities and the industry of the Colorado
River. 52 % is agriculture. So the fact that
we grow things in the most arid area of our country
is just astounding to me. And we could solve
all the problems if we curbed agriculture in
the area by 20 % or 10%. And I understand certain
things just grow better in California. But it's
just insane to me that we're losing water. We're
losing technically more, because I said houses
and industry and cities are 18%. The riparian
vegetation is 19%. Evaporation alone is 11 percent.
It just evaporates 11 percent I mean that's more
than half of what we're using in the households
and the cities in the industry so It's it's pretty
wild and then when you look at agriculture and
break it down The growth crops like the wheat
and the cotton and all those things are only
20 percent not 20 percent of the 52 percent but
20 percent of the water and then cattle feed
32%. So keeping cattle and feeding them, that's
32 % of the Colorado River goes to cattle in
some way indirectly through their feed or through
what they're drinking. So it's just, that is
just... But that's a resource that we need too,
right? We need the... But that's movable. I mean,
that could be done anywhere, is my argument.
We can't move Las Vegas. We can't move the Inland
Empire, or LA for that matter. We can't move
those cities, but we could move some of that.
It just kills me that when we see a new development,
the first thing we say is water, but because
we're so sheltered and a lot of people that are
making those comments, we're living in suburban
America or suburban Southwest and just... Not
realizing that agriculture is taking up three
times what the entire city is or every city that
gets water from the Colorado River So that part
is wild to me and it's those statistics that
just make me crazy They just really really make
my blood boil and I can actually even think of
a couple of situations where as Builders come
in and as the city continues to expand it's helping
the water situation. I know there's Golf courses
that have gone down and then builders buy them
and develop that golf course significantly less
water on that as a fraction fraction fraction
of it and then if you think about as the city
Develops and grows at least Las Vegas and I'm
sure other Southwest areas because it were a
city of extreme We're super dry and then we'll
just pour for three days and the water is nowhere
to go the flood So most of these cities, but
especially Las Vegas because we route it all
back to Lake Mead. So we're just directly going
back to the Colorado River. We're routing it
all back there, whereas it may have just gone
into the groundwater or just kind of been. lost.
Yeah. And so the big water channel under all
the roads and as building and development happens
in the city and it continues to fill out, those
water channels are actually securing that resource
and making sure that it's continued. It's controlled.
Yeah, it's controlling it. And now we're able
to track it. And so although yes, that new subdivision
of 10 ,000 houses that went up over the last
five years, it might appear that look at all
the water there. Well, Inside every one of those
homes 99 % of that water is being reused. So
that's not even an argument And then everything's
desert landscaping now and all the new construction
stuff, which is drip irrigation It drips. Yeah
drips water for 15 minutes literally a drip Yeah,
so I mean, it's it's a flimsy argument at best
and it just it just makes me crazy so and then
another thing that I think is very encouraging
is that we've grown by 786 ,000 people in the
last 20 years as a as a metro area almost a million
three -quarters of a million people grown since
2002 and we actually Decreased our overall usage
by 26 percent per capita. We dropped it by 58
percent the average person in 2024 versus or
2025 versus 2003 is Using less than half the
water if you count homes don't have ornamental
grass anymore. Yes pools have gotten smaller
and Just in general, we're more water smart toilets
flush using less water. Awareness. Awareness.
And the water district has done a whole movement
to try and keep awareness and put it front of
mind and they were paying people to take out
all the grass that they had around their home
and put in the desert landscape and so all of
those efforts, wow that's a big number. It's
interesting, we're using 75 % of the water that
we were using 20 years ago and we grew by three
quarters of a million people. That's good news,
that's great. So it shows you that growth does
not equal more water usage. You're responsible.
water management is what equals more water usage.
Agriculture in an arid, dry climate equals water
usage. So as long as we know what we're dealing
with, I'm not advocating to get rid of every
farm west of the Mississippi. I'm just saying
we have to acknowledge that the Colorado River
is an agricultural water supply more than it
is anything else. And then after that, it's its
own vegetation, then every city on the Colorado
River, and then evaporation. It's just crazy
to me that that's where the water goes. And while,
yes, we have a limited resource here, Colorado
River refills itself each year. Yeah, there's
watershed. Right. So it isn't like it's, you
know, a pond that we're pulling from that's going
to run out one day. I mean, as long as we have
snow on the western Rockies. We're not getting
the snowfall here that would accommodate that
in an annual basis, but they are. And so keeping
in mind that our resource is refilling itself
each year. The watershed of the Colorado River
is massive. If you look at it in terms of the
swath of land, when they spread it out and you
realize all the mountain slopes and ranges and
everything that just kind of feeds into it, really...
I mean, I can see where three or four years of
bad snowfall and all those things and plus growth
of the sunbelt states. I get it. I understand.
Still in air climate. We're still in the drought.
Yes, it's desert. And then when people, specifically
in Las Vegas, look at Lake Mead and say, oh,
because it is about 180 feet lower than it was
since it was created. Can't get my boat in, the
ducks are high. But a lot of it is, if we've
stopped the flow, I mean, we can control that,
right? I mean, if we renegotiated that, which
brings me to my next point, if we renegotiated
that as a bigger city, which we should have more
power, we'd be able to allow that reservoir to
keep up. The Hoover Dam generates power for millions
of people in California, and they have a vested
interest in us keeping that dam flowing. I mean,
if it becomes Deadpool, it doesn't matter. I
mean, no one in California is going to care about
the ornamental grass anymore if they realize,
oh, we're not getting water. And that grit, we
know that grit has a lot of problems as it is.
We don't own all of the rights to the Colorado
River, so how is that divided and what amongst
that do we get? I was so hoping you'd bring up
some history. I see, I was just here to help,
give you a little history, I like it. So 1922,
Colorado River Pact. So basically all the states,
I think they were all states by that point, yeah,
they were all states by that point, got together,
the upper basin and the lower basin, I think
it's eight states, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, California,
Nevada, maybe Wyoming, I can't remember. And
then it also spills into, there's a... Delta
and Mexico. So we also have to have discussions
with Mexico too, in terms of what we're taking
out of it. They also, so 1922, they came together
and said, this is how many acre feet you're gonna
get, this is how many acre feet you're gonna
get. For reference, in 1922, California as an
entire state was 3 .4 million people, as an entire
state. And now it's 40 million people. Nevada
was 80 ,000 people. More people live in a master
plan community than that. Right now, Nevada's
population is 3 .4 million. So we're almost the
size California was 100 years ago. So when they
were negotiating that, and by the way, agriculture
plus farming was more local, more of a local
business. So the concept of not having farming
in their state was just anathema. We would not
even think about it. It's like telling us we've
got to go get water from the well down the street.
No, of course I'm going to have farms in my city,
area of my state. They didn't even consider about
the sustainability of it. Are we going to be
able to continue to grow almonds and cashews
and things that take up a lot of water, those
types of cash crops? I mean, if we had to redesign
it today, would we probably have thought, yeah,
that seems like a really good idea? No, probably
not. We have a lot of livestock and cattle in
California, probably not. It's very water intensive
industries in agriculture. So I think that when
we first looked at that 103 years ago, Just looked
a lot different and I don't think a lot of people
predicted the growth that we have in another
little Knife jab is that they they think they
overestimated the flow of the Colorado River
by about I think 10 % At the time. Yeah, so they
were overestimating how much water there was
because it just didn't have the GPS and the technology
to even figure it and The data to go back a hundred
years and say well over a hundred years How much
what are we just not in a drought right now and
we're figuring all this out So that agreement
is expiring December 31st 2026 and the feds are
probably gonna have to step in because these
states will not they can't agree Colorado all
the upper basin states The water is flowing there.
I mean that's coming from there. I mean it comes
from you know from not just the upper basin states,
but They they don't want to give it up. They
they they don't want to lose any of it Denver
doesn't want to lose its ornamental grass But
that's just as much a desert arguably as Las
Vegas It just is snowy, so you don't think of
it as a desert, but it's a very arid climate.
They probably shouldn't have ornamental grass
there, right? So they don't want to lose it,
and they don't want to be water smart. And they
also don't have the infrastructure. Las Vegas
is one of the top 10 most water smart cities
in the world. It's like us, Tel Aviv, Singapore.
I mean, we're a big player on that front. You're
idly enough in New York City, but again, New
York City doesn't have a lot of landscape vegetation.
They don't have a lot of exterior irrigation.
So as long as they're recycling, it doesn't surprise
me per capita that they are pretty water smart.
But these other Sunbelt cities don't have the
infrastructure that we have. And you look at
other... States even you say Louisiana has an
initiative to not flush your toilet Why Louisiana
is all water, but they don't have the infrastructure
to recycle so they're using these reservoirs
and they say we We just filter our sewage and
put it back in the ground water, right? So Vegas
so much water that it's been a problem then it's
a problem on the other And I would actually direct
some of our viewers to Southern Nevada Water
Authority has a wonderful YouTube channel. They
really do, so yes. The content is top notch and
the scientists there are very... They put it
in a very palatable and they'll be able to speak
to the specifics of the data more than I could.
And it puts your mind at ease when you see some
of those resources and you see what's going into
the Southern Nevada Water Authority and how hard
they're working to make it. There is a peace
of mind that comes when you start to inform yourself
about that stuff because the rhetoric is, ah,
the water. Oh, you take a drive to Lake Mead
and you look at the bathtub rings and you go,
oh, we're screwed. Yes, yes, but then you look
at it from the other side and what is happening
and then there's a really hopeful spirit that's
happening on that front that isn't as catastrophic
as some people might believe. Oh, no. We have
tens of millions of people that occupy this,
this zone of the country, and it is not going
to be politically popular to let this part of
the country dry up. Right. Right. It's just not
there. And what else is heartwarming about it
is that All of us along that Colorado River,
although we can't agree on who gets what, we
all have a vested interest in, uh, you know,
keeping the river sustainable and keeping us,
I've accessed everything. In fact, I know that
Southern Nevada water authority invests in desalination
and reconstitution, you know, water filtration
places or plants in San Diego and other municipalities
in California. And then every dollar that they
spend there, they get the equivalent. Colorado
River so we're basically will help you become
more water smart we'll invest there so that we
can get more water we can get more of an allocation
from the Colorado River yeah exactly and it's
kind of a heartwarming interesting thing to watch
and then people you know as a side note what
about desalination the best thing you can do
is reuse the water you already have right it's
potable water it's now sewage but you can clean
it up and it's potable water again Disgusting
thought but makes me want to have some water
But the best thing, you know, that's the that's
the low -hanging fruit Second would be wells
Third would be desalination But an interesting
statistic is that it's estimated it talked it
costs about six times per gallon six times Wholesale
wholesale cost of water to desalinate that same
gallon of water So it just it's cost prohibitive
now. That's why you're not really seeing it I
know Tel Aviv is and Israel is just as Israel
as a country has a lot of desalination Efforts
because you know where they're at they are technically
the desert, but they're right there by the sea
So it makes sense to desalinate. It's right there
and if they can harness energy a lot of the cost
come from energy as solar panels become more
efficient. I mean, one might see some innovations
there where it goes from six times multiplier
to three times, but then maybe the whole salt
value of water goes up, so then - And by desalinate,
you mean take the salted water and turn it into
a usable resource. All right, it becomes potable
at that point. So, I mean, there's a lot, there
are some environmental concerns that people worry
about to say, well, now you have all this extra
salt, and you get kind of brackish brine water
here that you're pumping back into the ocean.
taking the good water. So where's the salt's
got to go somewhere? So there's other concerns.
It's not foolproof and it's expensive, but that's
an option. But it is kind of tantalizing to see
how much water really is close to us. You know,
you have a couple hundred mile radius. You think,
well, can't you just put a pipeline in and, you
know, desalinate it and then just pipe it in?
I know. There are people that think that from
California. Bring it from the ocean. Yeah. Right.
And I think that's smart that they say, okay,
well, can we just, I know Phoenix looked at that.
and it became cost prohibitive, but it made more
sense to pay for a desalination plant in Mexico
and then let them use that water and then keep
more of the flow from the Colorado River, like
we're doing in California. So there's a lot of
different ways around it. It'll be fine. Ultimately,
seeing single -family homes pop up in the desert
is not going to... It's not gonna be the end
of our water use. It's just not how it works.
So we could put some people's mind to rest with
that. Yes, builders are definitely doing great
things for the valley and not taking our only
nice resource. And newcomers are not taking.
It's not a zero -sum game. And maybe as California
grows into those agricultural lands in the Central
Valley and some of those farms, I would have
to look up the numbers on that, but is the farming
footprint in California getting bigger or smaller?
As that land gets more valuable outside maybe
Modesto and kind of those... Inlanders or Central
Valley places as those get sold out for development.
That's if you took 500 acres of cattle ranch
and made at homes that's 20 times more water
smart than having the cattle there. So and that
farm maybe goes somewhere. That's a little bit
easier to manage in terms of the water so It's
an unfolding situation, which always makes the
best content. It's interesting, and it's a hot
button issue. People are very passionate about
it. It really is. So I'm glad we addressed it.
Glad we took some, and a good little history
lesson in that too, so. I got it in there. It
only went back 100 years. I wanted to go more.
I knew you'd find a way. Talk about geology.
Lake Cambrian era or something. That's funny.
Well, thank you for joining us Hopefully we were
able to put your mind at ease and you have a
better understanding of water as a resource and
how it's being used here in the valley and again
that Southern Nevada Water Authority is a great
place to inform yourself if you are looking for
more information. I think it's smwa .com. Okay.
Great. Great. All right. Thanks for joining us
for another episode of trust the process Podcast
and we will look forward to seeing you again
next time. Thanks Bye -bye. Thanks for tuning
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