Frist of all, I think Bruce Ferguson doesn’t get quoted enough.
I’d like to suggest that the issue in Vegas needs to be considered holistically. How can the dumb-*##es in the city’s CE dept not concern themselves with the effects their decision is having on Lake Mead’s ecology? Do they think they live in a bubble?
Also, consider the arroyos; they are fascinating landscapes. It is the desert’s impermeability that creates them, so sequestering or infiltrating water further up the watershed doesn’t make much sense, since those acts are out of place in the desert. I would suggest that any dumb-#$$ who buys land next to an arroyo doesn’t deserve the insurance money when his house gets washed away. Serves him right! Since that is the case; who decided that land adjacent to an arroyo could be legally sold, anyways? It’s like making it “OK” to build in the Mississippi flood plain and then expect the flooding to go away just because someone built there??? I mean, come ON! When it comes to City/County activity in Vegas, it’s like Forrest Gump’s Mama used to say, “Stupid is as stupid does.” I lived in Vegas for 4 years, and the only thing that town has more of than stupid is money, and that is debatable. I regret that so many ignorant dolts have that kind of power over that fragile landscape.
Back to Prof Ferguson to finish. I wonder if some sort of interlocking/permeable paving has been looked at to help control/focus desert flooding? It would just be a part of the system, which would include willows, some sedges, an occasional cottonwood. Who would mind some of that rather than just LA-style open canal?
MIKO
