Thursday, Aug. 19, 2004 | 11:19 a.m.
As a result of reduced water use in the Las Vegas Valley, the Southern Nevada Water Authority is recommending that the region forgo a heightened "drought emergency" that had been planned for Jan. 1.
Pat Mulroy, water authority general manager, said, however, that the community must continue to conserve water under the current measures.
"The drought hasn't gone away," Mulroy said.
Mulroy said that while "new draconian measures" may not be necessary, the water authority may recommend stiffer penalties for violations of existing conservation rules.
"Let's go after those who aren't doing their part yet," she said.
A drought alert put into place last year limited the hours and days residents could water their lawns, banned ornamental fountains at most businesses and restricted residential car washing, among other measures.
Some of the rules were relaxed for the summer after water use dropped. County residents used about 15 percent less water in 2003 than the previous year.
The water authority also has encouraged homeowners to replace their lawns with desert landscaping through a rebate program.
Clark County Commissioner Rory Reid, a water authority board member, urged the water authority staff to develop tougher measures for a worst-case scenario, just in case.
"We need to pat them on the back, not take them off the hook," Reid said of water consumers.
In addition to the success of conservation measures, Mulroy pointed to ongoing discussions among the states that use the Colorado River for water, the federal government and Mexico as a reason to hold off further restrictions.
It's too soon to decide on further conservation measures until the negotiations over water use are further along, she said.
Mulroy and other water officials said a critical contribution to the postponement of new, more restrictive water conservation measures has been the response to the measures already in place.
"We didn't know how this community was going to respond to the drought condition," Mulroy said.
This year Southern Nevada is expected to use less than the 300,000 acre-feet of water it is allowed, the second consecutive year that consumers have stayed below the basic annual allocation.
Last year, Southern Nevadans used about 270,000 acre-feet, water officials said. An acre-foot is 326,000 gallons of water, enough for the basic needs of a family of up to five people for a year.
Vince Alberta, water authority spokesman, said the conservation measures are working.
"What it means is that we front-loaded a lot of our conservation measures and the community has overwhelmingly applied the conservation measures," Alberta said. "The conditions have changed since we first set the triggers for the drought emergency."
One of the factors in the negotiations is the amount of water coming to Lake Mead from Lake Powell. Water officials in Las Vegas said they expect the Bureau of Reclamation to announce today that the federal agency reduce the flow to protect the water levels in Lake Powell, a move to ensure continued power generation at the Glen Canyon Dam.
Water authorities are also looking at bringing more in-state water into Clark County by diverting water from the Muddy and Virgin rivers to urban use by drilling dozens of wells throughout rural Clark, Lincoln, White Pine and Nye counties.
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