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A few thoughts from John Fleck, a writer of journalism and other things, living in New Mexico

Where the Bellagio Fountain’s water comes from

Posted on | March 1, 2013 | 8 Comments 

Bellagio Fountain

I’ve been getting this wrong.

The water in the Bellagio Fountain in Las Vegas does not come from recycled sewage:

The Bellagio fountains are mostly using well water that exists beneath the Bellagio landscape. That well water was used previously to maintain a golf course that previously existed there. The beauty of that is the current water use, because of the lake, represents only two-thirds of the water that was used before when the golf course existed, so in reality, the Bellagio uses less water than the golf course that use to be there before.

(I got it wrong in a talk I gave this morning, and a gentleman who knows Vegas water kindly corrected me in the hall after.)

 

Comments

8 Responses to “Where the Bellagio Fountain’s water comes from”

  1. Jeffrey Prest
    March 2nd, 2013 @ 9:10 am

    Interested to read this, John, What was the name of the old golf course?

  2. Another Week of GW News, March 3, 2012 – A Few Things Ill Considered
    March 4th, 2013 @ 7:45 am

    [...] 2013/03/01: JFleck: Where the Bellagio Fountain’s water comes from [...]

  3. Michael J. Lehner
    March 4th, 2013 @ 10:13 am

    I saw that spectacular water show they put on there. It was very cool. I am a little conflicted about the fountain using an invaluable natural resource from a well. Now what the Bellagio needs to do is to figure out a way to get some recycled water to the fountain. Just some at first. Not all. Then work on increasing that. Make that rumor come true. I thought they used recyled water for it too.

  4. jfleck
    March 4th, 2013 @ 10:40 am

    Michael – Thanks for stopping by.

    Unfortunately, recycled water in the fountain wouldn’t help Las Vegas’s overall water situation. Currently, Las Vegas recycles essentially all of its water anyway, putting it back in Lake Mead after treatment. So any water diverted from that stream to use in the fountain would be a net depletion.

  5. David Zetland
    March 5th, 2013 @ 5:46 am

    I thought it was saline g/w, i.e., “useless” for drinking but not for display…

  6. John Fleck
    March 5th, 2013 @ 9:23 am

    David – I also heard the saline thing, but don’t have a publication-quality reference.

  7. More on where the Bellagio fountain gets its water : jfleck at inkstain
    March 5th, 2013 @ 10:05 pm

    [...] post last week on the Bellagio fountain and the fact that it got its water from wells originally drilled to water an old golf course drew [...]

  8. Sara R. Bates
    March 9th, 2013 @ 12:02 am

    I really love the way that fountain dances at night….
    http://www.waterfountainpros.com

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