Lake Mead hits record low as Nevada water agencies face lawsuits over conservation

LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — Lake Mead hit its lowest level ever recorded as the Las Vegas Valley Water District and the Southern Nevada Water Authority face lawsuits alleging they used strong-arm tactics in the name of conservation.

Attorney Sam Castor is leading two lawsuits: one against the Southern Nevada Water Authority over mandates to tear out turf under the “useless grass ban,” and another against the Las Vegas Valley Water District over collecting “upwards of 100-million dollars in excessive use charges” intended to discourage customers from using too much water.

“Well, this whole thing’s a public relations game,” Castor said.

Castor argues the two agencies operate as one. “The whole issue here is that the Las Vegas Valley Water District and the SNWA are basically the same organization. They’re run by the same people, and there’s no oversight. They have more power than the police. They’re going around threatening to turn off people’s water,” he said.

Castor also points to the Southern Nevada Water Authority’s 2026 water resource plan, which shows Southern Nevada has banked more than 2.2 million acre-feet of water in Arizona and California, while local water consumption last year fell below 200,000 acre-feet.

Laura McSwain, president of the Fair Water Coalition, questioned why Nevada would offer to give up additional water. “The Governor and John Ensminger, he’s the the governor’s representative on the Colorado River negotiations — they offered up a Nevada plan to give up 50,000 acre feet because we’re not using it. Well, that’s residential water. That’s Nevada water. Our argument is that we should be using it,” McSwain said.

The water authority says the reduction is temporary and would come off the top of Southern Nevada’s 300,000 acre-feet allocation for 2027-28. The water authority also says the reduction is inconsequential because Southern Nevada’s water usage is now under 200,000 acre-feet, and that two decades of conservation and adaptation are why “draconian cuts” are not necessary now despite continued arid climate conditions.

Castor said rising heat is part of what concerns him. “The thing that drives me crazy is that we we all see that we’re not cooling off at night anymore. Vegas is getting substantially hotter,” he said.

Castor argues conservation policies themselves are contributing to the problem. “So SNWA is telling everyone to rip out their grass. They’ve ripped out 1000s of acre-feet of grass. There’s no evaporative cooling effect like there used to be. We’re turning into Phoenix. We’re destroying our soil, and it’s all making the the lake evaporate more. It’s all making the water go away. We’re destroying our our ecosystem to to make it look like we’re conserving,” he said.

The Fair Water Coalition says Southern Nevada is doing its part by becoming the “gold standard” in conservation, but says the federal government also needs to develop ways to secure the region’s water source, using the same ingenuity that allowed Hoover Dam to be built.