Fines failing to curb commercial fountain use

Monday, Jan. 19, 2004 | 11:08 a.m.

Fountains at businesses across Las Vegas continue to run, despite the efforts of the valley's water agency to enforce conservation rules that require water features to be shut off.

But Las Vegas Valley Water District officials say that new, increased fines could help push companies to turn off fountains. Officials add that if those fines do not work, higher fines may be implemented.

According to rules for the water district and other regional distributors, commercial fountains are effectively banned at properties throughout Clark County except for a narrow exemption for resorts. Cities, Clark County and the independent agencies of the water district and Southern Nevada Water Authority are working to draft a unified set of regulations that could provide exemptions to those rules. But as of now the fountains violate at least the district rules.

In the past three weeks the district has fined at least eight businesses for continuing to operate water fountains. The Triple Five group of companies, owned by a Canadian family based in Alberta, leads the local list with fines issued for seven different fountains.

A Triple Five fountain at the company's Boca Park Shopping Center, at Charleston and Rampart boulevards, is the only fountain to receive a "level four" violation, meaning that inspectors have cited and fined the company four times for continuing to operate the fountain.

Since August the water district has fined Triple Five $1,700 for fountains operating at three locations, including a Jan. 9 fine of $800 at Boca Park, according to district records. Doug Bennett, water authority conservation manager, said the Boca Park fountain would draw a fine of $1,600, the maximum, if it continues to flow.

The district can issue fines about once every 15 days, allowing time for inspections and giving time for an appeal process, Bennett said. The agency's rules say that companies will continue to receive the maximum penalty until the water-use issue is resolved.

The water district could cut water off to offending businesses or residents, agency spokesman Vince Alberta said.

"We have the capability to do that within our service rules," he said. "It would be an extreme measure."

Shutting off the water to a mall or other property with multiple businesses would not only affect the property owner, but would shut down all of the businesses in the property, he said.

Triple Five Vice President Barry Bender said the company wants to comply with the rules, but the overlapping city and county land-use regulations, which also restrict fountain use, and the district rules create a confusing mix.

"I'd hate for our image to be projected as water wasters, because I don't think we are," Bender said. "There are so many entities trying to regulate things that it's impossible to comply.

"We're trying very diligently to comply. We're trying to make sense of the issue."

If classes of exemptions for the commercial fountains come in, Triple Five would apply, he said. The company, Bender added, is willing to import water from outside Nevada, although that option has been sharply criticized by water officials who fear contamination of local water and difficulties in proving water does, in fact, come from another state.

The one solution that would keep the local governments happy, turning off all the fountains, is not an option, Bender said, echoing other business owners throughout the region who have kept their fountains and water features flowing.

He said issues with infrastructure and the relationship his company has with tenants of the company's malls make it important to keep the fountains on.

"We've turned them off and we've turned them on," he said. "We have invested literally hundreds of thousands in these fountains, and if we turn them off, our fountains will quickly disintegrate internally."

Bender said the loss due to evaporation is about five gallons a day, while turning the fountains off and on again -- district rules allow the water features to operate a few hours a day to keep the machinery working -- would lose about 20 gallons of water.

Paul Larsen, Triple Five's lawyer, argued that the company should not have to pay fines for the two properties in the unincorporated county. While the county is working with other agencies to draft new fountain rules, businesses such as Triple Five that have unresolved applications shouldn't be hit with fines under the parallel district rules, he said.

"If we're complying with the county's rules, and the district says they supersede the county's rules, then what's the point of having the county rules?" he asked.

"The permitting process is under way," he said. "If they're going to fine you anyway, that's clearly improper."

Bennett, however, defended the rules and said the vast majority of businesses with water fountains and other targeted features have complied.

The reasons for the ban on water fountains include perception and real water savings, he said. Perception is important because, after more than four years of drought, the region needs to show it takes water conservation seriously, he said.

Bennett added that the ban could provide real water savings. A typical fountain will lose a depth of nine feet of water over the course of a year to evaporation, he said.

"Hundreds and hundreds of people complied immediately" with the rules, which local governments adopted over the course of the last year, "and the vast majority of them voluntarily," Bennett said.

"We're finding most home builders, car washes, a lot of businesses are stepping up to the plate," he said.

"We would prefer not to have any regulation," Bennett said. "We would expect people to show some leadership and do the right thing.

"One of the things that is important in this whole process is this issue of community responsibility," he said. "It is important that people weigh in on what the expectation is of their neighbors ... what their values are and who shares them."

Higher fines could be in store for companies that do not abide by the district rules. While the fines are levied by the water district, the Southern Nevada Water Authority sets the guidelines for the fees.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, who two weeks ago said publicly that no fountains should now be operating in the city, said policy-makers should consider raising the amount of the fines if companies do not respond to the penalties in place. He emphasized that he was not familiar with the specific circumstances of Triple Five or any other company, but said the general issue of the effectiveness of fines is a concern.

"If they're not working, then we should raise the fine," Goodman, a water authority board member, said. "I will address that at the next meeting."

The city has the ability to slap a $1,000 fine and put a water-rule violator in jail for up to six months because a violation could be considered a misdemeanor under the city's land-use regulations, but Goodman said the proper venue for to enforce the water rules would be the district's financial penalties.

"You're almost better off with the fine," Goodman said. "It's hard to put a corporation in jail."

Bennett agreed, adding that staffs at the various governments affected by the rules will look at stiffer penalties if the existing ones fail to work. He added that the existing fines, however, should work.

"I have every expectation that these would get people's attention."

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