Consumer cutbacks lead to relaxation of water rules

Friday, Feb. 27, 2004 | 8:47 a.m.

The board of the Southern Nevada Water Authority approved Thursday a relaxation of rules designed to curb water use -- a testament, agency staffers said, to the success of consumers in cutting back use of the resource.

The water authority board accepted the staff's recommendation to allow homeowners to once again wash their cars in their driveways, one day a week and with a "positive shut-off nozzle." Like other water restrictions, the rule against car washing, which went into effect throughout Southern Nevada Jan. 1, is a response to four years of drought that have sent water levels in Lake Mead, the water supply for the region, plummeting and threaten the availability of water from the lake.

The water authority also changed rules that prohibited ornamental fountains and similar water features at businesses and once again allowed businesses to use "mist" systems to cool outdoor areas in the summer.

The fountain rule would allow businesses to operate the water features if they took out 50 square feet of grassy turf for every square foot of water in the fountain or pool. If a company has no turf to eliminate, it could pay an annual fee of $10 per square foot of water in a fountain. The money would go to pay for replacement of turf with desert landscaping.

The third rule change would allow businesses to operate misting systems during the months of June, July and August between noon and 10 p.m. Residential misting systems also would be allowed.

Kay Brothers, water authority deputy general manager, told the board that the rule changes still have to be approved by the four local water distributors that bring water to the taps and local governments that have parallel land-use rules in place.

The proposals passed the water authority board 7-0, but several board members expressed concerns about relaxing the rules.

"I am totally against anyone of any size running fountains during the drought," including the Strip resorts that are now exempted from the fountain rules, board chairwoman and Henderson City Councilwoman Amanda Cyphers said. But she added that she would support the rules changes, in part because the fountain modification could lead to increased water savings.

"Maybe we can work things to better reduce the water use," Cyphers said.

Clark County Commissioner Myrna Williams also voted for the measure but expressed reservations.

"Once we start allowing things that we have were restricted, will our conservation effort remain as good as it is now?" Williams asked.

Board member and Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said the 50-to-1 rule would indeed lead to savings. The city of Las Vegas adopted the same fountain rule last year, and the move helped spark the revisions passed Thursday.

He said one company that lobbied for the change at a bank it owns has eliminated a significant amount of turf, the big consumer of water throughout the urban area.

"People who drive past there can see a difference has been made," Goodman said. "We take the drought very seriously."

Water Authority General Manager Pat Mulroy told the board that the success in reducing water use by about 15 percent over last year's number attests to the efforts throughout the community and made the rule changes possible.

"We always knew the drought plan was a work in progress," she said. In January, the region's water use dropped from 28,030 acre-feet to 24,640 acre-feet this year, a continuation of a long-term trend towards more efficient water use. An acre-foot is 326,000 gallons, or about enough water for a typical family for a year.

"That kind of significant savings makes us think that it's possible to implement these changes without doing any harm," Mulroy said.

In a related action, the board provided more money for rebate programs to help residents and businesses convert water-hungry landscaping to low-water-use desert landscaping. The board provided $8 million to carry the water authority programs through the end of the fiscal year in June. The agency has used $13 million already this year for the programs, which generally provide $1 for every square foot of heavily irrigated landscaping that is removed.

The program is important because most of the water that is used in Clark County is used for irrigation. Water used indoors is treated and returned through sewers to Lake Mead, where Nevada recoups "return flow credits." For every gallon returned to the lake, Nevada can take one more gallon out.

But water used for irrigation never returns to the lake and so the region loses those return flow credits. That is why, Mulroy said, building new homes doesn't use much water if there is little landscaping demanding irrigation.

"The impact of growth on our water supply is an impact of landscaping, period," Mulroy said.

Next year, the agency plans to spend $32 million in the program, which is funded through connection charges throughout the county.

The money might be needed because the drought doesn't look like it is over, Brothers told the board. Although the Rocky Mountains, the source of the Lake Mead's water through the Colorado River, have gotten more water this year than the last several, they are still below the historical average for the critical snowpack.

She said the recent rains have not helped beat the drought because the precipitation here has little impact on water levels in Lake Mead. For precipitation to matter, it has to fall in the Rocky Mountains as snow, she said.