Curbing water waste: Water district more aggressive in fining violators

Friday, Dec. 6, 2002 | 11:05 a.m.

Dennis Gegen's day tracking down water wasters begins at 4 a.m. because many of the Las Vegas Valley's sprinklers begin hissing before dawn.

For the next eight hours, Gegen's mission is to crisscross the valley seeking the telltale evidence: Small streams of water running through streets and public areas.

With an ongoing drought dropping the Lake Mead waterline to near-record lows while an estimated 6,000 additional water users move to Las Vegas each month, Gegen's mission is more important than ever.

He usually doesn't have to look far to find a problem.

"There are areas where we get calls almost daily," said Gegen, an investigator with the Las Vegas Valley Water District.

Since rule changes in June that make it easier to fine violators of the district's water-waste rules, the number of inspections and fines has picked up.

Gegen and the district's other three full-time investigators, bolstered by as many as seven part-time interns, have completed more than 10,000 investigations this year, up from about 8,000 all of last year.

Water officials hope the investigations lead to better water conservation. That would go a long way toward easing the crisis because about 25 percent of all water used by the district's 800,000 customers is wasted, officials said.

The majority of water waste in Southern Nevada comes from homes, and 90 percent of the water used at homes is used outdoors, according to the water district.

"By eliminating this waste you're not going to hurt anybody's quality of life," Gegen said. "They have water flowing off their property."

People are paying for wasting. First-time residential fines range from about $12 to $14, but double with each subsequent violation up to a maximum of 10 times the original fine.

Since June, 70 homeowners have paid an average of a little more than $18 each for failure to correct water waste problems.

Among non-residential water users, a category that includes businesses and government agencies, district investigators have charged 122 fines averaging almost $61 a pop.

Among the government agencies that the district has charged fines are the Clark County School District, the Community College of Southern Nevada, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and the city of Las Vegas.

"Nobody's exempt," water district spokeswoman Amy Kremeneck said. She said in each of the cases, the agencies corrected the identified problems after a single fine -- a "level one' violation ranging from $38 to $67.

But Gegen said the objective is not to levy fines but to stop the water waste as soon as possible. That's why water wasters usually get two letters and a phone call informing them of a problem before the fines are charged, he said.

"Whenever my investigations get to a fee, I make sure we're pretty much rock solid that there is a problem," Gegen said.

The new fine system seems to be getting the message across and the dragnet is much broader than the old citation system, district officials said. The old system basically also relied on warnings, but when that didn't work the district's only recourse was to issue a citation and take the offender to court.

In 2001, 25 citations were issued. If the water officials prevailed in court, the fine was usually about $185 even though the misdemeanor offense carried a potential maximum fine of $1,000 penalty and a jail sentence of up to six months.

The main problem with that system was water officials "spent a lot of time showing up for court appearances," Gegen said.

Under the new system, "it's on your bill. You can still fight it, but it's a lot easier for everyone," he said.

Kremeneck said the law against water wasting remains on the books, but the fines seem to be working, and the citation approach has not been used since the fine option started in June.

Less time in court means more time for investigators locating problems, water officials said. The investigators track the history of any problem property with a photographs and details kept in a computer log in their work vehicles. Many of the people investigated, cajoled and sometimes charged fines by Gegen are folks who work in his former industry. After earning a degree in ornamental horticulture from the Community College of Southern Nevada, Gegen worked as a landscaper. These days, the landscaping companies that tend greenery and maintain yards all over town are often Gegen's targets.

Thursday morning, as Gegen inspected water flowing onto the road from a soggy hill in The Lakes, a master-planned community on the valley's west side, a landscaping company employee pulled up. After Gegen pointed out the problem, the employee agreed to cut back the watering time, which was expected to solve the problem. Gegen said the response was typical.

Usually, landscapers and other water users comply with the requests to fix problems, which can be as simple repairing a broken or malfunctioning sprinkler head, he said.

Gegen's rounds Thursday included a stop at an accountant's manicured lawn near downtown where water was running off the yard. He said the property owner will likely get a repeat visit, and eventually a notice asking them to correct the problem.

An administrator at the office said later the same day that she was not aware of the problem.

"We'll have our landscaper look into it," Trish Smith said.

Conversation is usually all it takes, Gegen said. But sometimes the problem is harder to solve. Not every water user likes learning that they are wasting the resource.

"You get people that are opposed," Gegen said. "You get people who say, 'Why do we have to pay for water, it's a natural resource?' "

Water consumers do pay for their water, however, and costs for heavy users could go up. The Southern Nevada Water Authority, which pumps water from Lake Mead to the water district and four other distributors in Clark County, is working on a plan to deal with the three-year drought that is draining the lake.

That plan could include increasing the fines for wasting water, district General Manager Pat Mulroy said.

"Everything is on the table at this point," she said. Additional costs for people who use lots of water as well as for people who waste water could go into effect next summer, but the details are still being worked out, she said.

Gegen said he believes strongly in what he is doing because he knows the future of the community depends on using water wisely.

"I'm pretty passionate about water conservation," Gegen said. "I've been here since 1995, and my family's here and I plan on staying here a long time." They have water flowing off their property."

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