Editorial: Stay tough on valley’s water plan

Thursday, Oct. 2, 2003 | 8:54 a.m.

A month ago the Las Vegas City Council missed an opportunity to get serious about water conservation when representatives of office parks requested exemptions from the valley-wide drought plan for their decorative fountains. Instead of denying the exemptions, as they should have, council members decided to give city staff 30 days to study the requests and allow the fountains to run until a decision was made. Well, 30 days have now extended to at least 60 days, as the council again took no action on the requests at its meeting on Wednesday, except to agree that a definitive ordinance should be in place by November.

There is some encouraging news here, however. City Manager Doug Selby reported to the council that his staff is leaning toward recommending an ordinance based on the drought plan that would make it clear that office parks are not eligible for exemptions. The drought plan was authored by staff of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, but local governments have the duty to administer it. As such, they can approve exemptions. In the overall plan, large water features on the Strip are exempted because they contribute to the Las Vegas Valley's "core economic function."

The office parks, however, are arguing that the term "core economic function" applies as well to individual businesses. They say their fountains are amenities that make them highly competitive in attracting tenants. In our view, the term pertains only to the valley's economy as a whole. Selby said his staff is working toward an ordinance that would make it clear that only those large water features associated with gaming resorts are eligible for exemptions.

One of the office parks has offered to tear up sod on the property to more than compensate for continuing the fountain. This sounds reasonable at first, but given the severity of the drought, sod should be torn out anyway. Under the drought plan, we all must suffer equally, including office parks, and this means no wheeling and dealing to secure unwarranted exemptions.