VEGAS MYTHS BUSTED: Lake Mead to Draw Water from San Diego Desalination Plant
Posted on: June 1, 2026, 07:16h.
Last updated on: June 1, 2026, 07:32h.
On May 21, the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) voted to start negotiating a water swap with the San Diego County Water Authority. If a deal is eventually struck, Las Vegas would help fund extra production at San Diego’s Carlsbad desalination plant. In return, San Diego would leave an equivalent amount of its Colorado River water in Lake Mead for Las Vegas to use.
That would be a tremendous relief for Las Vegas, which gets 90% of its water from the lake — since federal forecaster predicted last month that the reservoir is likely to drop more than 20 feet below its lowest level on record, set in 2022.
Yet according to fake news sources designed specifically to enrage/”engage” Southern California readers, not only has the water transfer already begun, it’s a physical one.
For example, a website called newschunks.com claims desalinated water from Carlsbad “is now being extended beyond California’s borders to support approximately 500,000 residents in Arizona and Nevada.”
The plant currently produces 50-54 million gallons of drinking water per day — but only to about 400,000 residents of San Diego County, quenching about 10% of the region’s total demand.
The comments reacting to the story on the fake news site’s Facebook page are hysterical in both senses of the word:
“How about filling our lakes and reservoirs first!” one reads.
“Refill the Salton Sea!” another suggests.
“OVERPRICED No-Bid Crooks!” reads another.
Doesn’t Hold Water
No pipeline exists between Las Vegas and Southern California (other than the famed metaphorical one for strippers) and none is likely to be built in the lifetime of anyone reading this.
Here are the three main reasons:
1) Brutal geography: You’d have to pump water from sea level up more than 4,000 feet and across 400 miles of mountains. That’s not engineering; it’s insanity.
2) Ridiculous power bill: Moving that much water uphill would require a small city’s worth of electricity. The cost of water per gallon would be astronomical.
3) No reason to do it: A simple paper transfer gives Las Vegas the same water rights for pennies on the dollar, so why spend billions on a pipe system?
Even the paper water swap has odds stacking against it. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, a residents group called the Water Fairness Coalition just fired off a cease-and-desist letter to SNWA, arguing that the agency has no legal authority to strike a deal.
They say only the Colorado River Commission of Nevada can approve it — and they promise to sue if the board moves forward.
Bottom line: Las Vegas is not sticking an impossibly long straw into the Pacific Ocean. Not today and probably not ever.
Look for “Vegas Myths Busted” every Monday on Casino.org. To read previously busted Vegas myths, visit VegasMythsBusted.com. Got a suggestion for a Vegas myth that needs busting? Email corey@casino.org.
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