Friday, Dec. 5, 2003 | 11:31 a.m.
Regional and local officials are scrambling to respond to Las Vegas' decision to create a class of exemptions for the ban on water fountains.
The city's unanimous vote Wednesday to allow businesses to continue to operate fountains if they reduce water use elsewhere was staunchly opposed by Southern Nevada Water Authority officials, who argued that the move would cut the legs out from under the yearlong crash conservation program enacted in response to four years of drought.
The city's decision broke what had been a united front in enacting -- if not always in enforcing -- drought-related water restrictions throughout the Las Vegas Valley. The council's decision allows a business with a fountain to keep it running if it can save at least 50 times the amount of water used by the feature in other ways. Typically, businesses could reduce water use by replacing turf with desert landscaping or paying someone else to replace turf.
Officials from the water authority and the authority's sister agency, the Las Vegas Valley Water District, have said the region needs that unanimity to respond to the drought. One way to bring that unanimity back would be for Clark County, North Las Vegas, Henderson and Boulder City to adopt a similar exemption for businesses that reduce water use.
Water authority General Manager Pat Mulroy agreed that Las Vegas' new policy sets the stage for such a battle, and not just between Las Vegas and the county or cities. The water district's service rules do not now allow for fountains to operate.
So although the city rules might now allow the fountains, under the overlapping sets of rules the district can slap offending businesses with fines for water waste, an option the district is now prepared to exercise, Mulroy said.
"While we debate it, the fountains are off," she said. "Under the service rules (from the district), the fountains are illegal. The district is not bound by the city ordinance."
Clark County Commissioner Myrna Williams, who also serves as the president of the water district board, indicated that solution is not a good one for the county.
"I find it disappointing that the city of Las Vegas has seen fit to do this," Williams said. "I don't know if we can stop them."
The county commission, which also serves as the board of the water district, already took action this week not to allow exemptions but to tighten up the restrictions on fountains, Williams noted.
"The Las Vegas Valley Water District has already responded on Tuesday, when we said no fountains," Williams said. "I don't think people understand that if the drought continues, we will be in an emergency."
Williams noted that the city's representative on the water authority board, Mayor Oscar Goodman, had endorsed the drought restrictions, including the fountain rules, last January.
"As far as we're concerned, this needs to be across the board," Williams said. "The water authority had voted for it be across the board."
The rules governing water fountains, however, could get another hearing in the county. The county commission is scheduled later this month to consider permits for several companies to continue using fountains. The companies have proposed importing water or some other liquid to avoid using water from Lake Mead, the dwindling source of 90 percent of Southern Nevada's water supply.
Mulroy, general manager of both the water authority, which is the wholesaler for all of the region's water utilities, and the water district, which distributes directly to customers in the unincorporated county and the city of Las Vegas, opposes the county proposal, as she did the city proposal that passed.
She said that her agencies are still trying to gauge the impact of the city's decision. The authority's counsel, Chuck Hauser, will soon meet with the city's attorney to find out what the decision means.
Mulroy said a priority now is to bring the different governments together and find a common set of rules that will serve everyone in the valley.
"At this point, my preference is to take a deep breath and bring all the representatives from the various entities together and see if there is something that we can get everyone to agree with," she said.
As it stands, well-heeled companies in the city of Las Vegas can have fountains while those in neighboring communities cannot, although Mulroy pointed out that the companies have to prove that they are making the water savings they claim before they can run the fountains.
Still, companies in the city could have splashing water features while companies next door may not. That is not acceptable, Mulroy said.
"All the industry has ever asked us is: Don't create a competitive disadvantage from one entity to the other, and that is fair," she said.
The worst that can happen is to have the different regional governments pitted against each other or against the water authority and water district, Mulroy said.
"The last thing we want to have is a conflict among entities regarding the drought plan," she said. "My job is to avoid that conflict. This community will not be able to survive the drought if we end up in a petty, parochial war over fountains."
Las Vegas Councilman Larry Brown, who championed the city's policy change, and Mayor Goodman, who backed it and sits on the water authority board, did not return phone calls Thursday. However, the pair have an ally in North Las Vegas Councilwoman Shari Buck.
Buck, like her colleagues in Las Vegas, rejected the argument made by water officials that turning off the fountains could be important next year if the region is forced to turn to other states in an effort to buy water.
Mulroy has said the perception of water conservation will be critically important for the region's successful acquisition of water from other states. It is an argument that Mulroy admits is hard for some policy makers to grasp.
Buck is one of those policy makers -- and as a member of the water authority board, one of Mulroy's bosses -- that doesn't buy the argument.
"I like what Larry Brown said, which was that there are those who want to deal with perception and those who want to deal with reality," Buck said. "The reality is that if you're saving a lot of water and want to have a fountain because it's an economic benefit to your business, then it makes a lot of sense.
"If you educate people and you tell them that this is the amount of water you should use, they should have the freedom to choose how to use that water," Buck said.
Mulroy said that the argument advanced by Brown has merit, but the city has to prepare for another round of cutbacks under the "drought alert" standard, which goes into effect Jan. 1. A year later, the region appears likely to enter what has been dubbed a "drought emergency."
An unanswered question is if the fountains would still operate under those two regimens, Mulroy said.
"I can't believe Larry Brown's intent was to rip the guts out of the authority, or at least the guts out of a unified drought policy," Mulroy said.
Clark County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates said the city is free to right its own rules -- but the county and the water district do not have to abide by the city's decisions.
"Just because the city does one thing doesn't mean we have to do the same," she said. "I think the county government has a bigger responsibility. We actually run the water district... I think we have to show a different kind of leadership.
"The city of Las Vegas is not a water purveyor."
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