LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Nevada's water crisis has been a longtime coming.
However, a "ring around the valley" idea led to controversy 36 years ago.
Democratic Congresswoman Dina Titus said she advocated for growth boundaries back when she was a state senator.
That would have managed the valley's growth and helped conserve resources like water.
"Some cities in the west already had it. You same in Portland and some in Seattle," Titus said. "I thought, you know, if we grow up instead of out, that will deal with the problem of sprawl. It was about land use, about transportation, which creates bad air quality and use of water."
At the time, some lawmakers criticized the idea.
"They put my picture on the cover of their magazine with a noose around my neck. They called it ring around the collar, ring around the rose," Titus said. "They very much opposed it in the legislature because they thought it would cut off development. I kept saying no. We're not going to stop development. We're just going to do it smart."
She added if the idea had been implemented, it would have helped with valley drought conditions.
"While there have been improvements, I believe that that growth boundary would have made a difference."
RELATED LINK: The Power of Water: Drought impacts and solutions in Southern Nevada and beyond
Titus said critics of her "ring around the valley" idea have apologized to her since then and today, Lake Mead is in her district and is a stark reminder of continuing water woes.
"You can see the bathtub rings as you fly over there, how much the lake has dropped. I remember when that water was coming over the spillway at the dam," Titus said. "Now, we've had a good snow year, a good rain year this time but you can't make up for 1,200 years of drought with one season. We need a lot more."
Titus added a lot of federal money is going into drought resiliency but said with our rapid growth, more needs to be done like reassessing the use of Colorado River water.
"You don't want to get in this situation California has been in in the past where you can't flush the Johnny when you go in the bathroom. That's not a very good tourist attraction," Titus said. "So we do have to be more creative and that's why I think we've got to look at the agreement along the Colorado River. Six of the seven states agreed to it and California says, no. We're keeping our share. If you don't like it, just sue us. Nobody dreamed there would be two million people here in this valley when they first did those allocations."
Titus said when she first came up with the "ring around the valley" idea, we were building an elementary school a month just to keep up with the growth in the late 90s.
She said we are once again one of the fastest growing cities in the country and still insists we need long-term solutions to address our water crisis.
Tune in weekdays at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. for the newest reporting, culminating with "The Power of Water," a Channel 13 and ABC News special on Thursday, April 20 at 6:30 p.m.
