LUCKY SEVERSON: Looking for the good life, the American dream? Look no further. Just follow the shimmering water which is not far from the Eiffel Tower and the sparkling neon.
DANNY THOMPSON (Nevada AFL-CIO): People are coming here because there's jobs, and there's jobs that pay enough that you can live and have a house and have insurance and have a good life.SEVERSON: Danny Thompson with the Nevada AFL-CIO says a new house is completed here every 23 minutes, and some of those high-rise casinos take 10,000 workers to build and 10,000 to operate. It's already the country's fastest growing metropolis, with a population of almost two million and projected to double in the next 20 years. And speaking of the American dream, there were more than 60 golf courses at last count.
And it is not just the city of Las Vegas and its suburbs. I'm standing about 60 miles northeast of Las Vegas, where construction is underway for a gigantic golf resort that will ultimately include 16 golf courses, 159,000 housing units, and take up approximately 67 square miles. There is a downside, of course, to this explosive growth in dry southern Nevada. Where will the water come from?
Mr. THOMPSON: Well, you know, Mark Twain said whiskey's for drinking and water's for fighting over. So, water's a problem.
SEVERSON: Actually, it's a pretty large problem, made more urgent by a seven-year drought along the Colorado River that feeds Lake Meade. The lake's water level is only half of what it should be.
The solution, in the view of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, lies under the high desert basins. The city would spend at least $3 billion to pipe the water from underground aquifers some 250 miles north of Las Vegas -- enough to supply about 700,000 people. The head of the Water Authority, Pat Mulroy, says it's a good, solid plan.
PAT MULROY (Southern Nevada Water Authority): There would not be an American West were it not but for the ability to move water from one place to another. Without inner basin transfers, this state has no future.
SEVERSON: Once the future of the West was thought to be gold. Not anymore. The future is ultimately tied to who has the water. It's a red-hot issue of justice and fairness, and it won't be going away. That's the view of former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt.
BRUCE BABBITT (Former Secretary of the Interior): Las Vegas is handing out a death sentence to rural Nevada. It is basically a unilateral decision by Las Vegas that the growth will take place here.CECIL GARLAND (Rancher): I see it as a moral fight for the simple reason Las Vegas is a city of glitter, gluttony, gambling, and girls, and this valley is a valley of children, cattle, church, and country. You make the choice.
SEVERSON: Cecil Garland is an 80-year-old rancher in Snake Valley, and he's not about to give up his water if he can do anything about it. That's the big question. Bruce Babbitt says it will be an uphill battle.
Mr. BABBITT: Water in the West flows uphill to money, and Las Vegas is a classic example. They have the money and the resources to buy and transport the water.
Ms. MULROY: There is a modicum of truth to that. But I don't think that that's the way it should be in the future necessarily, and that's certainly not our objective. We are legitimately and sincerely seeking a partnership.SEVERSON: Mulroy says Las Vegas wants to work with the ranchers to reach an agreement on the pipeline, but any decision seems a long way off, and the ranchers are suspicious.
DEAN BAKER (Rancher): I don't think this is a logical, reasonable answer for southern Nevada needs, nor do I think it's good for this environment or this valley. SEVERSON: Dean Baker and his three sons own and operate this 12,000 acre ranch with about 3,000 head of cattle. Baker says as a farmer and an environmentalist he's concerned that the desert will become a barren wasteland, unable to sustain even the mule deer, let alone cattle.
Mr. BAKER: This is the worst crisis our family's faced in over 50 years here. I mean, it is going to have huge impacts, and it takes away the opportunity and future. When the water is gone, the future is gone.
SEVERSON: To show the effects of what even a small amount of pumping water can do on this arid land, Baker points out a spot that was once a wetland before he pumped the ground water to use on his ranch.
SUSAN LYNN (Great Basin Water Network): No, I don't think they know that, because they say their models are inoperational. They're not using them. 
SEVERSON: The big users are not the giant casinos. They recycle. The entire strip uses only three percent of the Las Vegas total. Golf courses use tremendous amounts of water, and there are still some spectacular examples of consumption, such as this development called The Lakes at Las Vegas, which opened several years ago.
Mr. GARLAND: I can afford somehow or another to keep up the struggle because my daughter, my grandchildren, the future of my ranch, the beauty of where I live, the quality of life I have is all put up in jeopardy.
