Immigration Intensifies Nevada’s Water Supply Crisis

Nevada receives the least rainfall and is the driest state in America, yet it has one of the fastest growing populations. So it’s no surprise Nevada is facing critical water supply shortages. As more people move into Nevada’s urban centers, the demand for water has risen sharply. While conservation efforts have slowed the rate of water use per capita, the sheer magnitude of new residents, primarily international migrants, continues to place ominous demands on the state’s water supplies.

The Realities of Population Growth Across an Arid Landscape

Nevada’s population has grown dramatically over the past several decades. From 1980 to 2020, the state’s population nearly quadrupled, driven primarily by migration to southern Nevada (home to Las Vegas). In 2023, Nevada reached 3.2 million people, with 72% of that growth coming from international migration — the highest level in over a decade. Much of the rest comes from residents fleeing overcrowded, overpriced California. All this population growth has put extraordinary demands on Nevada’s falling groundwater levels and dwindling surface waters.

Southern Nevada is home to over 75% of Nevada’s total population and gets about 90% of its water from the Colorado River, which is being severely overused and is diminishing due to prolonged drought. In response to surface waters running low, communities pump more from underground aquifers. But this had led to many of Nevada’s groundwater basins being overdrawn (i.e., more water is pumped out than nature can replace). Water managers are left with only bad choices: divert water from the state’s farmlands, further over-pump aquifers, or drain rivers beyond their ability to sustain the wildlife that depend on them.

NumbersUSA Report: Nevada No. 1 – Sprawl in the fastest-growth state

Competition Over a Shrinking Resource

Nevada faces complex challenges with water rights and legal conflicts due to over-allocated groundwater basins, and growing demands from urban, agricultural, and tribal stakeholders. Climate change is already reducing rainfall in the Rockies and flows in the Colorado River, with more decreases projected to follow. Competition for surface waters has become an intense challenge, especially due to the state’s disjointed regulatory framework, divided among state and federal agencies and interstate agreements like the Colorado River Compact. As drought conditions persist, and population and development pressures grow, these legal and institutional tensions are becoming more difficult to resolve.

Population Size Matters

Nevada’s water supply problems are inextricably tied to its rapid population growth. Urban and agricultural demands, over-withdrawal of groundwater and ecological degradation are all worsening under the stress of a fast-growing population.

Nevada’s leaders and citizens need to recognize that environmental limits make endless population growth impossible. As they and other states reckon with those limits, leaders at the federal level should embrace policies that make practical sense. Hoping for the best is no longer a viable approach. Ending population growth, while promoting prudent water resource management, are the only ways to avoid catastrophic water shortages in the future.

During this Congressional session, NumbersUSA is promoting immigration policies to humanely reduce immigration — our six great solutions. Two key bills are the Nuclear Family Priority Act (H.R.2705 / S.1328) which limits family-sponsored immigration to immediate family members (spouses and minor children), and the Accountability Through Electronic Verification Act (S.1151) / Legal Workforce Act (H.R. 251), which mandates use of the federal E-Verify system for all new hires.