Peak Water? By Mish

Not only are risk preferences such that people are willing to speculate heavily on home price appreciation, they also seem willing to take a gamble on water supplies at the same time.Please consider Vegas builder's Mohave County plan stirs worries:

If Arizona lawmakers want a reason to rethink the state's rural water laws, Earl Kemp figures he's stuck dead center in the middle of Exhibit A.Kemp watches daily as earth-moving equipment rumbles past his home in rural Golden Valley, near Kingman, pushing aside dirt and desert scrub as a Las Vegas developer prepares to build the first of more than 130,000 homes. It's an eye-popping plan that, when the final shingle is nailed in 20 or 30 years, will leave behind a city the size of Mesa in a 40-mile radius.The developer, Jim Rhodes, assembled ample land and promised to build roads, parks, schools and shopping centers. What he couldn't promise, not with certainty, was that he could provide enough water for all the people, a failing Kemp thought would doom the project....

to be continued: http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2006/02/peak-water.html