The Water Situation

Images of different areas of the Las Vegas Valley.

Las Vegas City elicits the idea of a fantasy land isolated from social constraints and the rest of the United States. Elaborate scenes running down the Strip mimic Paris, Egypt, the ocean, and other famous places from around the world. Even residential homes mimic other homes around the United States by having non-native drought intolerant grass lawns. The city is surrounded by stretches of one of the harshest environments, but in the glitz of the Empire State Building and bright green lawns that thought is far in the back of the mind. This culture of transplanting lifestyles suited for their original locations denies the realities of living in a desert. The extreme amounts of water needed to maintain the non-native grass landscapes is a hallmark of this denial, and one reason why water is a key conservation priority. This website will give an introduction to water conservation in the Las Vegas Valley that focuses on residential grass landscaping. A look at past regulations and the current course the South Nevada Water Authority is taking towards changing residential lifestyles reveals that more unified approaches aimed at environmental conservation significantly lower short term water use and set the Valley up for long term water conservation improvements.

The Las Vegas Valley in Nevada has the greatest concentration of people in the state, with roughly 2 million of the 2.7 million total people. It is an ancient dried up lake basin located in the Mojave Desert. Extreme temperature fluctuations, with highs of 110 Fahrenheit degrees and lows that drop below zero during winter nights, sparse clouds and low humidity mean that the average rainfall is 4.49 inches a year, and water evaporates very easily. Being in the area for as little as a day causes skin to dry out so severely that it begins to crack. Despite these extreme conditions, the early settlers named the area Las Vegas which means “The Meadows” because the area was flush with vegetation growing around the Colorado River and Las Vegas Wash. From the early settlements in the 1800’s until the mid 1900’s, water from this river and tributary, as well as water found under ground, was more than sufficient for the small population. 

Top: The white bathtub like ring indicated by the red lines shows where the water level was when the lake was formed because of the Hoover Dam. Since January 2000 the water level has dropped one hundred feet. The intake valve appearing on the left side will be too tall for the expected water levels in the coming years, so the South Nevada Water Authority is now in the process of constructing a third intake valve that will be able to draw in these lower water levels. More information about the status of Lake Mead.
Once the water flowed over the Hoover Dam.
Bottom: A depiction showing at what levels the intake valves are able are able to take in water. 

When the Colorado River Compact was signed in 1922 by seven states and Mexico, Nevada was allowed to divert 300,000 acres-ft per year (MAFY), the one of the smallest amounts of all the parties involved because there was little need at the time or in the foreseeable future. Soon after the Hoover Dam was built 1936, Lake Mead was formed and the people of the Las Vegas Valley began to divert greater and greater amounts of water from Lake Mead. By 1990, the Valley was demanding all of the allowed 300,000 acre-ft of water. Today, ninety percent of Las Vegas Valley’s water supply comes from Lake Mead and ten percent comes from underground sources. The water levels in Lake Mead have dropped below the drought line three times in the 2000’s and have been so consistently low that the Southern Nevada Water Authority has begun construction of a shorter third water intake valve in Lake Mead because the two current ones are too high for water to flow in.

The path of the Colorado River runs through seven states and Mexico. Nevada 300,000 acre-ft/year; California 4,400,000 acre-ft/year; Utah 1,700,000 acre/ft per year; Wyoming 1,000,000 acre-ft/year; Colorado 3,900,000 acre-ft/year; New Mexico 850,000 acre-ft/year; Arizona 2,850,000 acre-ft/year; Mexico 1,500,000 acre-ft/year.

Conservation Efforts and Measures

The results (192) of metering and fees enforced by "Water Cops."

           Current water conservation measures model after past efforts and ordinances. In the 1930's, concern began to grow over groundwater use when underground aquifers ran dry, and resulted in the centralized control by the Nevada State Engineer to distribute and discover new sources of water. Once the Hoover Dam was built some strain was taken off of underground resources. However, during World War II both sources were being drained at high rates both because of an influx of people seeking the jobs being created by the war and its use in development of goods for the war. When the war ended, local governments began being more strict about water usage, especially lawn watering. Later water meters were installed in all residential homes making regulations more relevant. The term "water waste" was created applied to run off from watering lawns and watering at times when evaporation was the most likely to happen. The lowering of water usage during the 21st century is mainly attributed to enacting water limits and distributing water fees. These methods have lacked other components like education and public awareness about why water conservation is important. Water metering and "Water Cops" are punitive more than inspirational.

This list of laws (191) reveals that current conservation measures take after laws enacted in the past. Lawns were identified as key area to regulate back in 1949. However, the newer efforts to curb water use incorporate other forms of action like incentives and education.

           Once the Las Vegas Valley began using all of its share of the Colorado River in 1990, there was increased interest by citizens and governmental groups to organize efforts to lower demand for water. The Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) was formed in 1991. The SNWA has a unique role in the Valley because it is a cooperative agency consisting of the seven major water servicing and water waste agencies in the Valley, partnering together to enact water regulation and conservation measures. It manages current water use, plans future use, and implements policies and programs to achieve goals that it works to create in cooperation with governmental institutions. As the most influential entity in the Valley regarding water use, they have been able to make considerable headway with conservation efforts. 

           In 2002, during an extreme drought, the SNWA proposed a Drought Plan. It outlines different measures to be taken with other water agencies like the Las Vegas Valley Water District and Clark Country Water Reclamation to encourage residents and business owners to change their habits so that the Valley’s demand decreases to sustainable levels. Past ordinances occurred one by one as a response to a specific problem with keeping levels low. They also didn't encourage increased understanding of the unique features of water conservation in the desert. The Drought Plan stands out because curbing water use is attacked from multiple angles (incentives, pricing, education, and regulation), and all of the measures are intended to work synergically to have more substantial results in conservation than simply lower water demands and use.

A SNWA visual representation of water use in the Valley.

          A great deal of the Drought Plan focuses on decreasing consumptive water use, which is a term referring to water that cannot be used twice by reclaiming and recycling it. Water that is easily reclaimed comes from indoor use like flushing a toilet, which can be enclosed and transported to processing plants where it then can be treated. Roughly forty percent of the Valley’s water needs can be satisfied by reclaimed water. Golf courses and industrial factories are major users. Consumptive water use accounts for 70 percent of the Valley’s water use, and landscaping is the single biggest portion. SNWA’s residential Water Use diagram indicates that about 23 percent of outdoor water is used inefficiently. There are a couple of reasons for this: residents in past decades have chosen to keep drought intolerant landscape features that require great amounts of water to maintain in a desert environment, water is often used at inappropriate times during the day, and water use might not be contained to the yard and end up running off into the sewers. Part of this problem is the culture of working against the environment to create something different than itself mentioned earlier, part of it is simply not knowing when the best time is to water the front yard. The Plan gets residents to change their habits by placing financial pressure on them, encourages them to change their lawns into ones more desert friendly, and helps making the transition to becoming more conservation and desert oriented easier.

"It's a desert out there. Be water smart."
A common image used by LVVWD
to promote a new attitude towards
living in the desert. "Water Smart" is
coined term for many organizations now.

A common trend is that when water prices go up, water use goes down for discretionary use like lawn watering. So new tiered water pricing system has been established where the base water prices have gone up 500 percent from 1990 to 2008, and prices per gallon go up with greater use. A Valley resident who uses more water will pay more per gallon than one who uses less. At first, residents make short term conservation efforts like washing their car less, but will then move to make long term conservation efforts like replacing their appliances or redesigning their front lawns. Ultimately, the tiered water pricing system aims to encourage the long term efforts that help create sustainable lifestyles.

A View of the backyard of the 2011 Landscape Award winner.

Incentives include different rebate programs for changes made to a residential home or business. The Water Smart Landscape Rebate Program has been especially successful. The SNWA pays $1.50 per the first 5,000sq ft of grass taken out, $1.00 for grass after that amount, up to $300,000 to be replaced with drought tolerant plants. This type of landscaping is called xeriscaping, which seeks to maximize water use through new design techniques. In addition, the SNWA works with professional landscapers that are Water Smart certified who can redesign a lawn for the resident.  Or if the resident wants to redesign it themselves a number of different resources are available to them. The Las Vegas Valley Water District operates the Springs Preserve that has acres of demonstration gardens, tours, and programs dedicated to educating visitors about native plants, gardens, and conservation issues. The SNWA website has videos and links to learning how to design a yard (linked in right side panel). Also, they do monthly and annual Landscape Awards that acknowledge landscapes that were redone with the Rebate Program.

There are new regulations on outdoor water installations and lawn watering schedules, which the SNWA is very serious about enforcing. Every house has scheduled watering time, for instance a house may only be able to water their lawn on Thursday mornings and nights during the months of May to October. During the winter they can water at any time. No resident is allowed to let any water run off their property into the sewer system. SNWA employs people to scan residential areas and those that do not follow these regulations are said to have water waste and will receive a warning and the home owner’s respective water service agency will also get a notification. If the home owner doesn’t fix the problem in 48 hours then they receive a citation that has to be paid to the water agency.

Educational programs have been aimed at helping people understand conservation issues, what it means to live in a desert, and what kind of services are available to become “water smart”. The resources mentioned earlier for redesigning lawns is one of the biggest components of re-imagining life in the desert because it is an active participation in converting a part of their home. Many different types of classes are available, from identifying leaks to learning how to maintain the new type of lawn. All the knowledge available through classes, professionals, magazines, websites, hotlines, etc is there so that residents gain a bigger picture of why their participation in conservation matters, and so that they are not left high and dry with house projects. In addition, the SNWA has partnered with other water agencies to give many elementary through high schools presentations, suggested curricula, and updates about what schools are doing. All aimed at informing students about the history of the area and ask them to critically think about what kind of water use is acceptable based on geography. They help schools organize field trips to the Spring Preserve, which is the center for education and demonstrations about the Valley and desert natural history. SNWA awards scholarships to schools to create their own demonstration gardens, remodels, and providing interested high school students with opportunities to work side by side with conservation professionals.

These initiatives pushed by the Southern Nevada Water Authority in partnership with other agencies have resulted in substantial water savings (21)  in overall Valley demand and for residents. Since the beginning of the Water Smart Landscape Rebate Program in 1999, 125 million sq ft of grass lawn have been converted to more drought tolerant landscapes saving 25 billion gallons. On average, a resident with a converted lawn will save 55.8 gallons of water a year per square foot, saving them great a deal of money. The Hughes family, who won a monthly Landscape Award, said that their water bill went from about $300 a month to about $56 a month just by converting their front lawn into a xeriscape. Along with the other measures in the Drought Plan, Nevada’s annual water consumption from 2002 to 2010 decreased by 32 billion gallons despite a population increase of 420,000 people. The gallon per capita per day (gpcd) has decreased from 314 gpcd to 223 gpcd, reaching the SNWA previous 2035 goal of 245 gpcd decades ahead of schedule.

Conservation and the Future

            However, water conservation efforts will have to have further reaching results than just saving residents on bills or lower the gallons per capita per day rate. Despite all the water use reductions, the Las Vegas Valley is still demanding more water than the SNWA’s annual goals. Although they have brought down their gcpd, 223 gpcd is still very high in comparison to other cities. Even Phoenix, another desert city, has a gpcd of 184. Studies on the Colorado River show that currently the water delivery rate is 16.4 million acre-ft per year (MAFY). When the Colorado River Compact was signed, the agreed total amount of water diverted by all parties was 16.5 MAFY during a time when the delivery rate was 17.5 MAFY. Meaning the Valley's demands are contributing to draining 100,000 acre sq ft more water than the Colorado River can currently support. The distribution portions have not been brought up for discussion since 1922. The reality is there is more to do to bring the Las Vegas Valley water use down so that first off there isn’t a constant fear of water shortages, and secondly to get to a point where water levels are restorative to their sources.

This shows SNWA's estimation of water demand (9) without any conservation efforts and the organization's goals in lowering water demand. The black line shows the level of water demand that would occur if past habits continued into the future, and the red one where the SNWA would aims to have the water demand. Even though they have already reached their 2035 gpcd goal, the Valley's total water demand is still higher than their goal.

            The efforts specific to landscaping in the Las Vegas Valley guide residents to understanding topics important in conservation and to connect with the desert environment that they live in. Grass turfs and exorbitant water use can lead to a disillusionment of what kind of lifestyles are sustainable in a desert.  The Water Smart Landscaping Rebate Program has residents remake their lawns with native plants which in the process educates them about the habitat around them. With 25 million acres of converted lawn, whole communities can begin to see the inherent beauty of the desert and how living in cadence with it can be rewarding. Public awareness and display like this can put conservation into perspective and make it a feasible concept that is in accordance with their lifestyles. Since landscaping accounts for a large portion of water waste it is very encouraging that a previously wasteful trend can be altered and serve as beginning steps to comprehending conservation. It is important to note that the multifaceted approach of incentives, education, pricing, and regulation taken by the SNWA to curb consumptive water use has been instrumental to combining conservation principles with lowering water demands. Also the strong partnership within the SNWA amongst its seven water agencies, and with governmental institutions, coordinates actions so that enacting measures can be more effective. The SNWA would not be able to have a multifaceted approach if the resources they count on are not diverse themselves. This also makes for them being able to coordinate previously divided efforts around one unifying theme of conservation resulting in a more holistic approach to inspiring residents to get involved.

            Current initiatives in landscape conversions have improved water use, residents’ lives, and their connection to conservation, but efforts will have to be strengthened to curb the enormous strain on water resources. Last year, the Las Vegas Valley was lucky enough to have a snow fall that replenished Lake Mead enough to keep the water level right above the drought level. However, the Las Vegas Valley cannot continue to live right above emergency water levels, especially due to discretionary water use like landscaping. The SNWA has a greater chance of getting people on the same page about saving the environment if they help them understand how to live in their environment.