Thursday, July 14, 2005 | 11:02 a.m.
A proposed moratorium expected to come before Clark County commissioners next week could halt construction of new golf courses for up to three years.
Commissioner Bruce Woodbury is expected to introduce an ordinance Wednesday that would restrict construction of new golf courses or expansion of existing courses that do not exclusively use reclaimed water for irrigation.
The proposed ordinance grew from a Clark County Growth Task Force recommendation that officials focus more energy on conserving water, he said. Commissioners last week directed county staff to begin crafting language for the moratorium.
"I think water is such a precious resource, and a lot of the golf courses are struggling," Woodbury said. "I don't think it's an appropriate use of water."
The moratorium would affect only unincorporated Clark County, although the cities could also pass their own versions of such a rule.
According to Clark County, more than 8 percent of the Las Vegas Valley's water supply is used by golf courses. Of about 50 golf courses in the valley, 30 now use reclaimed, also known as recycled, water, said Vince Alberta, a spokesman for the Las Vegas Valley Water District and its sister agency, the Southern Nevada Water Authority.
The resource has become more important as the region seeks to use water as efficiently as possible, but doesn't save much actual water, he said.
Instead, reclaimed water saves energy because the water authority, the regional distributor, doesn't have to pump treated effluent down to Lake Mead, then pump lake water back up for use in businesses and households.
"It is good public policy," Alberta said. "It helps the environment, it reduces the demand for energy and you are certainly being more efficient because you are taking that waste water, taking it and using it ... It saves potable (drinking) water in the sense that you are not using the potable water to irrigate the landscape.
"You're recognizing ways to make your local watershed more sustainable," Alberta said. "That's important going forward as we continue to deal with the worst drought on record in the Colorado River basin."
An exact timeline for the moratorium was "up for discussion" but could last up to three years or until officials declare the long-standing drought over, Woodbury said.
County government and the Las Vegas Valley Water District, which supplies water to the city of Las Vegas and nearby urban unincorporated Clark County, adopted drought plans in 2003 which set limits for the amount of water golf courses could use or face a surcharge penalty. Golf course operators also had to submit water use reduction plans that included physical description of each course, all irrigated areas, itemized accounting of water uses, a review of irrigation efficiency and a description of water use-reduction strategies and timelines for implementing those strategies.
Ted Tylman, executive director of the Nevada Golf Course Association, said the moratorium promotes two things already happening in Southern Nevada. The economics of golfing is discouraging building or expanding new courses, he said.
And those courses that are already under development are likely to use reclaimed water because it can be significantly cheaper than potable water, he said. A decade ago, the situation was different.
"It got kind of wild there for a while," Tylman said. "There are a few new ones going in, but not like it was 10 years ago."
The Las Vegas Valley Water District sells reclaimed water for $1.85 per thousand gallons. The district sells potable water at a rate that ranges from about $2 per thousand gallons to about $2.50.
Don Barsky, the former president of the Nevada Golf Course Owners Association, said he doubted that the moratorium would have much or any negative impact on the existing industry.
Golf courses that are already in have had tough times, in part because of the limits on water use, said Barsky, who as the former executive director of the Sun city-Summerlin Community Association managed three golf courses.
A moratorium on new courses could help the existing courses because players will go to the ones that are here, he said.
"We are still struggling here to meet our budgets because play is still down," Barsky said. "We have lots of capacity."
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