Las Vegas Wash is a 12-mile-long channel (an "arroyo" or "wash") which feeds most of the

Las Vegas Valley The Las Vegas Valley is a major metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada, and the second largest in the Southwestern United States. The state's largest urban agglomeration, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Statistical Area i ...

's excess water into

Lake Mead Lake Mead is a reservoir formed by the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River in the Southwestern United States. It is located in the states of Nevada and Arizona, east of Las Vegas. It is the largest reservoir in the US in terms of water capacity. L ...

. The wash is sometimes called an ''urban river'', and it exists in its present capacity because of an urban population. The wash also works in a systemic conjunction with the pre-existing wetlands that formed the

oasis In ecology, an oasis (; ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment'ksar''with its surrounding feeding source, the palm grove, within a relational and circulatory nomadic system.” The location of oases has been of critical imp ...

of the Las Vegas Valley. The wash is fed by

urban runoff Urban runoff is surface runoff of rainwater, landscape irrigation, and car washing created by urbanization. Impervious surfaces (roads, parking lots and sidewalks) are constructed during land development. During rain , storms and other precip ...

, shallow

ground water Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidate ...

reclaimed water Water reclamation (also called wastewater reuse, water reuse or water recycling) is the process of converting municipal wastewater (sewage) or industrial wastewater into water that can be reused for a variety of purposes. Types of reuse include ...

used on parks and golf courses,Water recycling
/ref> and

stormwater Stormwater, also spelled storm water, is water that originates from precipitation ( storm), including heavy rain and meltwater from hail and snow. Stormwater can soak into the soil ( infiltrate) and become groundwater, be stored on depressed l ...

. The

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (Anoxic waters, anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in t ...

s of the Las Vegas Valley act as the

kidney The kidneys are two reddish-brown bean-shaped organs found in vertebrates. They are located on the left and right in the retroperitoneal space, and in adult humans are about in length. They receive blood from the paired renal arteries; blo ...

s of the

environment Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, all living and non-living things occurring naturally * Biophysical environment, the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism or ...

, cleaning the water that runs through it. The wetlands filter out harmful residues from fertilizers, oils, and other

contaminants Contamination is the presence of a constituent, impurity, or some other undesirable element that spoils, corrupts, infects, makes unfit, or makes inferior a material, physical body, natural environment, workplace, etc. Types of contamination ...

that can be found on the roadways and in the surrounding

desert A desert is a barren area of landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About on ...

. Near its terminus at

Las Vegas Bay Las Vegas Bay is a bay at the western edge of Lake Mead in the U.S. state of Nevada. The bay is located within the Lake Mead National Recreation Area to the northeast of the city of Henderson, Nevada, near the junction of Lake Mead Drive and Lake ...

, the wash passes under the man made

Lake Las Vegas Lake Las Vegas in Henderson, Nevada, refers to a reservoir and the developed area around the reservoir. The area is sometimes referred to as the ''Lake Las Vegas Resort''. It is being developed by 5 companies including Lake at Las Vegas Joint ...

through two 7-foot pipes.

History

Before development in the valley above the wash, it was able to contain the flows from rain water that fell in the valley and hills above. When the first

sewage treatment Sewage treatment (or domestic wastewater treatment, municipal wastewater treatment) is a type of wastewater treatment which aims to remove contaminants from sewage to produce an effluent that is suitable for discharge to the surrounding en ...

plant went on line, the flows began increasing to the point that the channel expanded in size as the increased flows eroded the wash's stream-banks. This erosion also deepened the channel draining one of the largest desert

s in the U.S.

southwest The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

as the water flowed down the channel rather than flooding the wetlands area. This has had several consequences among them, increased flows of silt into Lake Mead, fewer

migratory bird Bird migration is the regular seasonal movement, often north and south along a flyway, between breeding and wintering grounds. Many species of bird migrate. Migration carries high costs in predation and mortality, including from hunting b ...

s, reduced water polishing from the native plants, and infestation of invasive plant species such as African

Tamarisk The genus ''Tamarix'' (tamarisk, salt cedar, taray) is composed of about 50–60 species of flowering plants in the family Tamaricaceae, native to drier areas of Eurasia and Africa. The generic name originated in Latin and may refer to the Ta ...

(''Tamarix africana'') and Sahara Mustard ('' Brassica tournefortii'').

Inflows

The major natural sources that feed the wash are: *Duck Creek *Las Vegas Creek *Flamingo Wash *Pittman Wash *Monson Channel *Sloan Channel *Meadows Detention Basin * Tule Springs Wash

Sources

Las Vegas Wash Coordination Committee

References

External links

Las Vegas Wash Watershed
{{Coord, 36, 07, 56, N, 114, 52, 44, W, display=title Washes of Nevada Wetlands of Nevada Natural history of the Mojave Desert Rivers of Clark County, Nevada Lake Mead Lake Mead National Recreation Area Tributaries of the Colorado River in Nevada

History

Inflows

See also

Sources

References

External links