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Posted on 11/25/2007 7:58:39 AM PST by Oshkalaboomboom
Seven years of drought: Conservation for fast-growing city, but that won't be enough.
LAS VEGAS — Outside the Bellagio casino, tourists stare at fountains thrusting water into the sky as Elvis sings "Viva Las Vegas." Meanwhile, off the Strip, residents dig up their lawns to save water — and get paid for it.
That's the paradox in this desert town where water lured people thousands of years before casino-constructed wonders such as the canals of the Venetian, the shark reef of Mandalay Bay and the fountains of the Bellagio.
By the 1800s, a life-sustaining spring on the Old Spanish Trail had inspired travelers to label this spot Las Vegas, "the meadows." Then in 1935, the Hoover Dam opened on the Colorado River, creating what is now Lake Mead. The region seemed guaranteed a reliable flow of water as far into the future as anyone could see.
But the original spring dried up 45 years ago, and now Lake Mead is in serious trouble. A seven-year drought has the 157,000-acre reservoir looking as if someone pulled the plug, leaving a waterline 100 feet high that locals labeled "the bathtub ring."
Reminds you of Lake Lanier.
When it comes to water, the Big Peach has a thing or two in common with Sin City.
Both are among the country's fastest-growing cities. Nevada shares the Colorado River with six other states; Georgia competes with Alabama and Florida for the Chattahoochee. And in Las Vegas, as in Atlanta, the rain has stopped falling.
Las Vegas, a few years ahead of Atlanta on the drought curve, responded with an all-out assault on wasteful attitudes and an exhaustive search for new water sources.
The city offered inducements to cut consumption, negotiated agreements with other regions and proposed a controversial pipeline that resulted in a tug of war with a neighboring state.
Water cops on the beat
Las Vegas takes conservation seriously enough to give its water agency its own police force.
On a "good day," Francis Reyes writes 40 citations. But most days, he and the 10 other Las Vegas water cops average about 14 apiece.
On this fall morning, Reyes is patrolling in his Water Waste Investigator's SUV, looking for violators. On the overnight shift, he'd have his windows down to hear any water he couldn't see.
He rolls past lawns with bright green grass and yards with rocks and desert landscaping, some of the latter no doubt the result of a financial incentive offered by the Southern Nevada Water Authority. Owners of new homes have no choice; no grass is allowed in front yards of new developments. Backyards can be half turf, a concession to children and dogs.
Driving through a neighborhood of 1950s-era homes on quarter-acre lots, Reyes, 24, passes someone washing a silver van — washing vehicles once a week is permitted — and stops to warn a man draining a pool that he must feed the water into the sewer system for recycling.
On the edge of an emerald green lawn, Reyes sees a defective sprinkler shooting water into the air like a geyser. Although outdoor watering is still permitted on a strict schedule, spilling water into the street is not. Reyes records the offense with a video camera, then logs onto his computer to check the address for previous citations. None.
He checks "Broken sprinkler/emitter" on a form. If it's not repaired next time he checks, a fine will be added to the water bill for this address. Should the homeowner appeal, Reyes has his video evidence.
Just as he gets out of the van to plant a small yellow flag at the precise scene of the crime, the automatic sprinkler system shuts off. Reyes sticks the pennant into the gleaming wet grass.
More residents, less grass
Conservation efforts saved Southern Nevada 18 billion gallons of water annually from 2002 to 2006 — a 20 percent reduction during a period when nearly 330,000 more residents moved in and 40 million tourists visited. Nevadans have cut five billion gallons a year just on the turf they've dug up since 2003, when the Southern Nevada Water Authority started paying people $1 a square foot to get rid of their grass so they wouldn't have to water it. The 26 golf clubs alone tore out 472 acres, the equivalent of five 18-hole courses. The areas where play takes place — the rough, the fairway and the green — are still grass. Other parts of the course feature drought-tolerant plants, many of them desert natives.
Doug Bennett, who moved to Vegas from New Mexico about the time the drought started in 2000, is the water authority's manager of conservation. He settled into a Las Vegas neighborhood of lush grass and immediately got rid of his.
"If the only time people walk on that lawn they're pushing a mower, it's not functional," he said.
Desert landscaping offers many possibilities beyond cacti, he said. Some colorful flowering plants and shrubs demand much less water than grass.
Bennett believes regulations about how and when water can be used are more palatable here because Vegas and all its suburban satellites operate under the same rules. They're set by the regional water authority, formed in 1991 to bring together seven separate water jurisdictions.
If each agency sets its own standards, Bennett said, "it's easy to send out mottled messages."
Push for higher prices
Despite the strides the authority has made, critics say Las Vegas should do more to conserve water. One way of discouraging water use could be to make it more expensive.
The Rates Citizen's Advisory Committee, a 14-member panel, was appointed by the Las Vegas Valley Water District to recommend a water pricing structure that would strengthen conservation.
The committee's charts show that Las Vegas pays a fraction of the water fees of Tucson, Ariz., San Antonio, Santa Barbara, Calif. — and even Atlanta.
Scot Rutledge, executive director of the Nevada Conservation League, is all for Vegas increasing water fees.
"You sure as hell should pay more for water if you're moving to an area with limited water resources," said Rutledge, who's not on the panel. "There are people in this valley who don't care how much water they use. Those are the people who should have to pay."
Because about three-quarters of water use in the Las Vegas vicinity is by single-family homes, the committee is focusing on those users. But all customers would be affected.
Some members of the advisory board — which includes representatives of gaming and development, labor unions and golf courses — are concerned that prices may escalate too quickly and businesses might be disproportionately affected.
"I think there's going to be rate shock no matter what," said Ron Winkle, who represents older adults on the committee. He cited the possibility that a 20 percent increase could bankrupt a golf course with a million-dollar water bill.
"At the same time," said Cynthia Lopez, who represents the residential sector, "golf is a luxury, especially in the desert."
"I don't think we want golf courses to go out of business," Winkle replied.
"Of course not," agreed Lopez, "but we're talking about water conservation."
When the meeting was over, committee facilitator Lewis Michaelson said the panel's mission is to curtail demand and encourage conservation while making sure everyone pays a fair share.
Water administrator Richard Wimmer shook his head. "It's a balancing act that's not achievable," he said. "You know that."
New sources needed
Ultimately, conservation will fall short, said Pat Mulroy, general manager of both the Las Vegas Valley Water District and of the Southern Nevada Water Authority.
Southern Nevada must find new ways to bring in water, she said.
A complex plan hammered out by the states along the Colorado River and expected to be signed by the secretary of interior next month will do that. It allows the Southern Nevada Water Authority to pipe water from the Muddy, a short river about 60 miles northeast of Las Vegas; the Virgin, a long tributary of the Colorado; and the Coyote Spring Basin northeast of the city. As part of the seven-state agreement, Nevada will help pay for a reservoir in Southern California.
The plan is supposed to ensure that Lake Mead doesn't fall below a minimum level.
Mulroy said the agreement, reached after "four years of chest beating" and "some very childish behavior" among the states, is much more equitable.
"We had to succeed," she said. "We could spend the next 20 years in the Supreme Court. In the meantime, we'd all be sucking air."
In a separate plan, the Southern Nevada Water Authority proposes purchasing and pumping billions of gallons of groundwater from rural east-central Nevada for use by Las Vegas, an idea that's sparked much controversy.
Some environmentalists say parts of the state could become a dust bowl. Some rural Nevadans resent the expanding city. And some Utah officials want a federal study to make sure the pipeline doesn't tap into Utah's aquifer — a request Mulroy says would interfere with Nevada's sovereign right.
"It's going to get uglier before it gets better," Mulroy predicted.
Controlling growth, she said, is not an option —although environmentalists insist the area's population explosion must be curtailed.
"What are we going to do, build walls?" she asked. "Will we reach a point where our own kids can't live here?"
A history lesson in order
The people pouring into Vegas must be educated about the concept of desert life, said Bronson Mack, a spokesman for the water authority.
One way water officials are trying to do that is through the Las Vegas Springs Preserve. On the site of the defunct original spring, the preserve opened in June as a $250 million attraction of exhibits, gardens and trails that illustrate the heritage and ecology of the Mojave Desert and Las Vegas.
"The history of the city is the history of the water in this valley," said Marcel Parent, the preserve's education director.
Current casinos and hotels are also feeding most of the water they use back into the Las Vegas Wash, which feeds recycled water back to Lake Mead.
The gaming and hospitality industries, which account for only 3 percent of the area's overall water use, are generally pretty good stewards, authority officials say. And, of course, they drive the area's economy.
Tourists aren't drawn to casinos only for the gambling. Sometimes, it's all about the show.
At the Golden Nugget, an older hotel and casino in downtown Las Vegas, a Michigan mother waited for a hamburger at a grill. During three days in town with her grown daughter, she had been in almost every casino on the Strip. The neon and noise had left her unimpressed.
But she said she would cherish one experience — watching the Bellagio's fountain shooting water to the heavens as Elvis sang.
That, she said, was worth the trip.
Back in May, I was on a Dallas-to-Vegas flight. Just before the final approach into McCarren, our plane flew over Lake Mead. Even a color-blind guy like me could easily see "the bathtub ring" from a mile up in the air.
--repeating this before somebody damns the casinos--they only use about 13% of the basin's water---
This sort of conservation is necessary, I think, and bears no relationship to the whacked-out stuff the environmentalists typically propose.
"What are we going to do, build walls?" she asked. "Will we reach a point where our own kids can't live here?"
Controlling growth is easy--stop issuing building permits. Personally, I think that it would be better to have more and smaller towns and cities than festering megalopolises.
The solution is ridiculously simple:
Let those who own the rights to the water sell it at market prices to whomever they wish.
There will never again be a shortage.
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Hubris is its own reward.
I live in N AZ about 90 miles south of Vegas. My neighbor has a very small front lawn (my front yard is all gravel). My monthly water bill runs10 to 20 bucks......his is usually triple that. I have never seen the point to moving to the desert and craving a lawn.
Yep. Sam Kennison had a pretty good take on this years ago.
"The history of the city is the history of the water in this valley," said Marcel Parent, the preserve's education director.
I live in Las Vegas. This is another great example of how bureaucrats think.
The ticket to enter this preserve is $40!
This is definitely going to get the word out.../sarcasm
Here's another scene from the same show using the song. Probably the best scene in the entire show.
What about all the power they suck up with their lights????
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I agree, the Bellagio's fountain is the best show in Las Vegas. The fountains doing Singing in the Rain is wonderful.
And the casinos, with a profit margin, seek to recycle their water or otherwise reuse to reduce costs.
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