09/25/2026
THE WATER STORY IS WAY DEEPER THAN I THOUGHT. 💧
I recently went back through a sales meeting our brokerage had with Bronson Mack of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, and there was so much more information than I could reasonably fit into one Reel.
A few things that stood out to me:
• About 90% of Southern Nevada’s municipal water supply comes from the Colorado River, with roughly 10% coming from local groundwater.
• Nevada has the right to use 300,000 acre-feet of Colorado River water per year, but Southern Nevada has already been using far less than that. In 2024, consumptive use was about 212,000 acre-feet.
• Southern Nevada has banked more than 2.2 million acre-feet of water, which is about 11 times Nevada’s 2024 consumptive Colorado River use.
• SNWA has also built major low-lake-level infrastructure, including a third intake and pumping station, so water can still be accessed under much lower Lake Mead conditions.
• And beginning in 2027, the new federal operating guidelines call for additional Lower Basin reductions. If the states use the proposed sharing agreement, Nevada’s reduction would be 50,000 acre-feet per year in 2027 and 2028.
The more I learned, the more I realized this probably deserves a Part 2. 😂
If you want to dig into it yourself, the Southern Nevada Water Authority’s 2026 Water Resource Plan and the Bureau of Reclamation’s 2027–2028 Colorado River operating guidelines are good places to start.
Southern Nevada Water Authority, 2026 Water Resource Plan
https://www.snwa.com/assets/pdf/water-resource-plan-2026.pdf
Southern Nevada Water Authority, Where Your Water Comes From
https://www.snwa.com/water-resources/where-water-comes-from/
Southern Nevada Water Authority, Intake 3 + Low Lake Level Pumping Station
https://www.snwa.com/infrastructure-improvements/intake3-pumping-station/
Bureau of Reclamation, 2027–2028 Colorado River Operating Guidelines
https://www.usbr.gov/ColoradoRiverBasin/post2026/decision-doc/
Bureau of Reclamation, 2027–2028 Guidelines news release
https://www.usbr.gov/newsroom/news-release/5392