Ensign plan one more water-saving step

Suzanne Struglinski

Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2004 | 9:06 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., believes his proposal to help reduce water use by replacing grass on schools and other public property, combined with other recent water-related decisions, will keep Southern Nevada in "good shape for awhile" when it comes to the West's precious resource.

Ensign's proposal marks the latest in suggested changes to the money collected from Bureau of Land Management land sales under the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act, a law he created as a House member in 1998.

Ensign wants to earmark $200 million over five years from the land sales for a Southern Nevada Water Authority program that would cover the costs of public entities' removal of unnecessary turf.

He is still working on details of the plan but expects to introduce a bill that would allow the money to be used for replacing turf soon after Congress starts again in January. He said he did not forsee any problem passing the legislation because "it makes so much sense" -- but he added that nothing is certain in Congress.

Ensign's proposal came hot on the heels of the deal reached last week between the Southern Nevada Water Authority and Arizona to provide 1.25 million acre-feet to Las Vegas over the new few decades and a law just signed by President Bush that will help speed up water pipeline development between Lincoln and Clark counties,

"I don't think people understand the significance of what this means," Ensign said. "We are in good shape for the future."

If approved, the expanded "cash for grass" program could remove 247 million square feet of turf, saving 42,000 acre-feet of water per year, the average consumed annually by 63,000 households in the Las Vegas Valley, according to Ensign's office.

One acre-foot of water is 326,000 gallons, which is about how much water 1.5 families use over the course of a year.

The savings of 42,000 acre-feet, though, would be compounded by "return-flow credits." Because the valley treats household waste water and returns it to Lake Mead it gets to take 1.7 gallons for every 1 gallon allotted. That would mean that with the credits, the amount of water saved is really 71,400 acre-feet, or enough for more than 100,000 households, or roughly 500,000 people, according to water officials.

Doug Bennett, conservation manager at the Water Authority, said exact numbers are hard to pinpoint at this time because it is unclear how Ensign's proposal will work, but any effort to turn grass into more water-friendly landscaping will save water.

On average, it takes 73 gallons of water a year keep a square foot of grass, Bennett said.

The authority's program now gives $1 for ever square foot of grass that is removed and replaced with landscaping approved under the rebate program. Since the authority created the rebate program four years ago, 48 million square feet of grassed has been removed, saving about 55 gallons of water per square foot, water officials said. Replacing the turf does not eliminate the need to water those yards because trees, bushes or other plants that replace it still require water, just not nearly as much.

Bennett said the money to fund the rebates mainly comes from fees paid by new residents and businesses when they connect to the water system. Through June 30, 2005, the authority has $32 million budgeted for the program, an increase from the $20 million during the last fiscal year.

Ensign's plan would cover the complete cost of removing the turf for public institutions, which would give more coverage than the authority's current plan but also free up more of the authority's fund for private businesses and residents. Ensign's proposal could not cover those.

Bennett said the actual removal of the turf costs about 50 cents a square foot, but removing it and replacing it with new landscaping can cost anywhere from $2.25 to $2.50 a square foot.

"We want turf, but where it is functional," Bennett said. "Where people can walk on it, fly kites or have picnics, not in street medians."

Ensign said he came up with the idea roughly six months ago when thinking about other ways to come up with incentives for replacing turf. He started talking about it with the Southern Nevada Water Authority, which told him that public institutions, such as schools, cannot afford the front-end expense most of the time.

"I thought, 'Oh my gosh that's perfect,' " he said.

By covering a school's cost to tear out turf, for example, it will help save water costs in the future, and that money can be applied somewhere else like books or teachers' salaries, Ensign said.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he wanted to take a thorough look at Ensign's proposal, but said he was generally supportive of water conservation projects.

Reid said that using proceeds from the Southern Nevada lands act might be the only way to pay for Ensign's plan.

"I think it's a good use of the money," Reid said.

Since its creation in 1998, land auctions under the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act have earned almost $1.4 billion for the state, according to data compiled by the Bureau of Land Management through Sept. 30. The agency plans to sells another 4,320 acres of federal land in an auction scheduled for Feb. 2.

Under the original law, five percent of money earned from BLM land sales goes to the state's general education programs with 10 percent allocated to the Southern Nevada Water Authority. The rest is set aside in a special account to pay for land conveyances, improvements at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area and other areas in the state, and parks and trails in Clark County.

Some changes have taken place over the last six years with the remaining percentage with certain programs getting singled out in the process.

The turf rebates would not come out of the authority's percentage, but be a separate account, similar to a change approved in 2003 that put aside $300 million over eight years to help restore Lake Tahoe.

Also, through the Lincoln County Lands bill passed this year, some land in the county would be eligible to apply for grant money from those Clark County land sales. The rural county could use the money for everything from conservation projects to capital improvements on federal lands and parks and trail projects that fall into certain categories, according to BLM.