Water district OKs fund-raising for preserve

Wednesday, April 19, 2000 | 11:17 a.m.

The springs that gave birth to Las Vegas will become a permanent oasis in an urban environment.

The Las Vegas Valley Water District Board on Tuesday approved raising $54.5 million in private funds through a nonprofit foundation to preserve the 180-acre area that held the primary source of water for Las Vegas until 1970, when the valley started drawing water from Lake Mead.

It may take up to $171 million to rebuild the preserve, bordered by Alta Drive on the south, Valley View Boulevard on the west and U.S. 95 on the north. The water district plans to have the restoration done by 2005, in time for the city's centennial.

"We think this is a critical time in Las Vegas, when the city is changing into a community," foundation member Amy Ayoub said. The water district board, whose members are also Clark County commissioners, endorsed the private-public partnership with the Las Vegas Springs Preserve Foundation, which plans to raise the money.

The 50-member foundation is drawn from all segments of the community and is chaired by Janie Greenspun Gale.

"What Central Park is to New York, the Las Vegas Springs Preserve will be to the city, bringing the community together," Water District General Manager Pat Mulroy said.

The springs almost ended up covered with asphalt as part of the U.S. 95 expansion. For more than a year the state Department of Transportation considered the property one alternative for widening the freeway between Decatur Boulevard and Interstate 15.

The state decided to take the expansion through neighborhoods north of the freeway last year after the Water District pointed out that the site is on the National List of Historic Places and has plant and animal species found nowhere else in the world.

Those species include the endangered Las Vegas bear paw poppy and the desert pocket mouse. Habitats for those species will be preserved in the new park and a visitor's center will educate residents on their existence.

Larger gardens will demonstrate how desert blooms grow. A 30-acre wetland called Cienega, after the gullies that funnel flood waters across desert sands, will be created with recycled water. A mound where the springs first erupted and an education center built with the help of the Nevada State Museum are also parts of the grand plan approved by the board.

"I think if children see the delicate nature of water in the desert, it is crucial for our future," Mulroy said. "There will be no life here if we don't live in harmony with the desert."

Once visitors leave their cars, parked atop a 20,000-gallon reservoir, they will enter a world different than the bustling city, water district biologist Kim Zukofsky said. A visitor's center and a museum will use natural materials and take advantage of recycled water and solar energy.

From the top of the spring mound, one of the oldest inhabited sites in Las Vegas, early dwellers could see the whole valley, Zukofsky noted.

"Perhaps from there we will see where we are going and how to preserve this environment for the future," she said.

The future includes the water district searching for every spare drop to drink in the area.

The water district is under a mandate to save up to 25 percent of Southern Nevada's water supply from Lake Mead by 2010. Last year Las Vegas residents saved almost 15 percent of the water they used.

Yet Las Vegas residents still use two-thirds of their household water on lawns and trees that are more suited to wetter environments, Mulroy said. Desert plants are beautiful, she noted, and "that takes viewing the desert with different eyes."

"Besides, it's an extremely cheap way to save water," Mulroy said. The water district pays roughly $3,000 per acre foot for water on the Muddy River or under a Virgin River agreement approved Tuesday. Conserving an acre-foot that can serve a family of four for a year costs $1,400, less than half of what it costs to buy water.

The water district board approved the agreement between the Southern Nevada Water Authority and the Virgin Valley Water District to work in cooperation for up to 5,000 acre feet a year of water rights declared by Virgin Valley in 1927.

The way the deal works, according to Mulroy and her counterpart Michael Winters of Virgin Valley, communities including the city of Mesquite, about 65 miles northeast of Las Vegas, will pump and treat ground water.

"That makes sense, because it is cheaper for us to treat it right there," Winters said. Basically, chlorine is introduced into ground water to kill bacteria.

In return, water not used by Mesquite or other irrigators from the Virgin River entering Lake Mead will be used by Southern Nevada, Mulroy said.

Officials took almost four years to reach the agreement.

"I think it will be beneficial to the community there as well as the Southern Nevada Water Authority," said water district member Bruce Woodbury, who led negotiations.

Mary Manning covers environmental issues for the Sun. She can be reached at (702) 259-4065 or by e-mail at manning@lasvegassun.com