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Vegas - 2015 - Issue 4 - Summer - Art of the City - J.K. Russ

Vegas Magazine - Niche Media - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.

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illustration by daniel o'leary "for all this lavish splashertainment, the city's resorts account for just 7 percent of the valley's water use. residents are the real wasters." Water World Punishing summer heat in extreme drought conditions? no Problem. Please enjoy our choreograPhed fountains and a seat under the water mister. by scott dickensheets For a Las Vegan, it can be hard to decide whether the opening scene of Paolo Bacigalupi's new dystopian drought novel, The Water Knife, works better as grim farce or simple prophecy: A militarized Las Vegas water agency sends its mercenaries and attack choppers across a desiccated Southwest to blow up a water facility in rival Arizona. Sure, it's science fiction—for now. But today's outlandish scenario has a way of becoming tomorrow's Google news alert. As you've surely noticed, it's getting awfully dry out there IRL , and you needn't be an eco- alarmist or Mad Max screenwriter to see the apocalyptic potential in every new photo of Lake Mead's receding waterline, every headline about California's aqua-crisis. Or, as one local wag puts it: H2OMG! "Water is the driving force of all nature," Leonardo da Vinci once said, and he hadn't even seen Lake Bellagio. Water is certainly crucial to the feng shui of Las Vegas, which exists in a desert where no metropolis of 2 million should. Only some improbable feats of engineering (Hoover Dam, sophisticated lake-draining infrastructure) have made the city's wild growth, prosperity, and Mariah Carey residencies possible. Of course, we acknowledge our critical rela- tionship with this precious resource in the only way Vegas knows how: by making a giant, glug- ging spectacle of it. If Mother Nature doesn't think there should be a lake on the Strip, by God, we'll not only create one, we'll make it dance. And we'll fill huge tanks with sharks and dolphins, we'll build canals, and, just in case nature still doesn't get the message, we'll have Cirque produce a vision of liquid beauty in its water-filled O. Indeed, so decadent are these entertainments in the arid context of the Mojave Desert that if Mad Max staggered in from the outback to behold Lake Bellagio at showtime, he could be forgiven for thinking he'd found another over-the-top villain's lair. But look beneath the surface. For all this lavish splashertainment, the city's resorts account for just 7 percent of the valley's water use (at 60 percent, residents are the real wasters). Most hotels have tightened their laundry procedures so they use less water. MGM properties have conserved some 1.2 billion gallons since 2008, and CityCenter, designed with eco-concerns in mind, saves 50 million gallons a year by itself, according to the company. And what about Bellagio, home of the gaudiest water spectacle of all? As it happens, both the lake and O are refreshed with well water that's not suitable for use in cocktails anyway. Overall, some 80 percent of resort-used water is returned to Lake Mead, helping shore up the dwindling supply. Not bad for an industry better noted for redefining conspicuous consumption. Does all this mean you can splash guilt-free in a Strip day pool or enjoy O without wondering if you've become the super-drought's BFF? We're going to offer a cautious yes. Go ahead, cannon- ball off the Palms pool diving board with a clean conscience—although a little water awareness and enlightened restraint is always welcome, of course. Maybe it'll help delay the launch of those attack choppers just a bit longer. V 120  vegasmagazine.com Parting shot

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