Total dissolved solids contribution to the Colorado river associated with the growth of Las Vegas valley

Editors

R. N. Palmer

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

5-16-2010

Publication Title

Proceedings of the World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2010: Challenges of Change

Publisher

American Society of Civil Engineers

First page number:

3376

Last page number:

3385

Abstract

In the past 38 years, the Las Vegas Valley (LVV) in Nevada has grown tremendously from a population of 273,288 (1970) to 1,986,146 (2008). This increase in population is coupled with exponential water demands and waste water generation. With the growth of the valley, the salinity release from households and large hotel resorts has increased the level of TDS in the waste water effluent, ultimately increasing the TDS in Lake Mead and Colorado River. In this research, a dynamic simulation model was developed to estimate TDS discharge into the Colorado River from the Las Vegas metropolitan area. Future per capita water uses for LVV were used to estimate future salinity discharges. The results revealed that with water conservation efforts, the TDS concentration in LVW will increase by about 14% in the year 2035. Reduction to 10% of the population using water softeners by the year 2035 will reduce TDS concentration by 126 mg/L.

Disciplines

Civil and Environmental Engineering | Civil Engineering | Construction Engineering and Management | Environmental Engineering | Structural Engineering

Language

English

Comments

Conference held: Providence, Rhode Island, United States, May 16-20, 2010

Permissions

Use Find in Your Library, contact the author, or interlibrary loan to garner a copy of the item. Publisher policy does not allow archiving the final published version. If a post-print (author's peer-reviewed manuscript) is allowed and available, or publisher policy changes, the item will be deposited.

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