Follow a gallon of water from Lake Mead to a Las Vegas tap

Water Quality Monitoring Field Specialist Daniel Luong tests water samples from the the Montessori reservoir that holds 20 million gallons of water located at Montessori Street and Warm Springs Road, Las Vegas, Thursday, March 23, 2017. Article: By Henry Brean Las Vegas Review-Journal

There is barely enough liquid running down this Far Hills street to wash a load of laundry, but it’s hard not to feel its loss when you consider how far it came.

To reach this Summerlin neighborhood at the farthest reaches of the valley’s distribution network, water must travel more than 50 miles by pipe and climb more than 2,500 vertical feet, a height greater than two Stratosphere Towers stacked on top of each other.

Depending on the time of year, the trip can take as much as 10 days.

So long as faucets run and toilets flush, most valley residents don’t give much thought to how their water gets to them. The average tourist on the Strip probably thinks about it even less. But getting water from the source to the tap requires a lot of infrastructure, energy and engineering.

Join us as we follow a single gallon on its long and complicated voyage from supply to demand. […]

Full article: Follow a gallon of water from Lake Mead to a Las Vegas tap

More about the Lake Mead reservoir and the Colorado River:

The Colorado River is evaporating, and climate change is largely to blame

The Colorado River is evaporating, climate change largely to blame

Plan for Colorado River draws on Blue Mesa, Flaming Gorge reservoirs

Rising temperatures sucking water out of the Colorado River