No more free water at Oasis

Denise Cardinal

Wednesday, May 6, 1998 | 10:01 a.m.

The largest operator of apartments in the Las Vegas Valley is now charging residents for water use, breaking with the trend of most apartments in Las Vegas not separately billing residents for water.

Oasis Properties, which owns more than 10,000 units in Southern Nevada, recently told its residents that they will be paying a flat monthly rate for water according to the size of their apartment -- regardless of the amount of water they actually use.

A three-bedroom apartment's water bill is estimated to cost between $22 and $28 a month, according to a letter distributed by Oasis management to residents.

The impetus behind the new charge is water conservation, Oasis executives said.

"We tried this with all of our properties in Texas, where water conservation is a huge issue," Keith Oden said. He is president of Camden Properties, the parent company of Oasis Properties.

"We found that water use went down as much as 30 to 40 percent. That's a big effect," Oden said.

Use went down, Oden said, because residents think about paying for the resource -- even if it is a flat fee and the amount of water used doesn't affect the bill.

"At the end of the day, it's fairest to do the billing based on square- footage ," Oden said. "Some will make the argument that they don't take showers often or were travelling. I guess our response to that is, 'If you're out of town, what does the phone company do?' I know I still get a phone bill if I make one or 400 calls."

The funds gleaned from the water charge will cover only about 50 percent of the Oasis Properties' water bills, Oden said. In Texas, he said, the charge covers about 80 percent. The difference is the desert climate in Southern Nevada, which leads to evaporation from pools and heavy watering of greenery.

Oasis apartment dwellers, however, don't buy Oden's theory about conservation and are less than happy about receiving water bills in the coming months.

"I think it's terrible," Peter Gonos, a resident of Oasis Canyon on West Charleston Boulevard, said. "We pay enough rent and everything. Why can't they give us a break? They make enough money. They could do something for us."

"I may be two people, or I could be four people and use twice as much water but pay the same," Rosemary Mulvihill, another Oasis resident, said. "Any conservation efforts we make won't be reflected on my bill."

Though an extra $30 a month might not seem like much, for some residents it's enough to make a difference. Take Erica Santacroce, a resident at Oasis who is waitressing to support her 2-year-old son Salvador and herself.

"It's not going to break me, but it's $30 that you can't do something else with," she said. "I don't think it's right at all for them to charge us."

She pointed out that the apartments don't lend themselves to water conservation, something for which Oasis Properties is directly responsible.

"They have really big tubs here," she said. "It takes a long time to fill the tub. I need to give my son a bath, and that's the only place to take one. The other bathroom is just a shower."