Real to Reel; Tapped Out: Water in Southern Nevada

No. Las Vegas was called from the arid Nevada desert. Advanced planning provided the water necessary to facilitate the extraordinary growth the Valley has experienced but southern Nevada is now facing some major decisions that will determine whether it will continue to prosper and flourish in the 21st century. Water played an integral role in the development of Southern Nevada Las Vegas is Spanish for the meadows in 1005 natural Artesian springs made Las Vegas a water stop for the railroad between Salt Lake and Los Angeles in one thousand thirty five. Boulder Dam was finished creating the largest manmade lake in the world and a few. Your water source for southern Nevada in 1942 the federal government allocated

100000 acre feet of Colorado River water to Nevada Southern Nevada was experiencing rapid growth expanding from 16000 residents in 1940 to a population of nearly 50000. In 1950 the 944 Nevada legislature requested and was granted an increase to 300000 acre feet and Agger for it is the amount of water necessary to cover one acre to the depth of one foot or approximately three hundred twenty five thousand gallons of water wells where the primary source of water. But by the mid 1940s more water was being taken from the ground than the four inch annual rainfall could replace. That became a crisis situation by the late 1950s. Whelan grandsire then governor in 1959 appointed me to the governor's groundwater control board that set the policies and control the water here in southern Nevada. The valley was sinking. It

was going down because we were taking so much water from beneath the surface. So we had a situation here where the artesian wells up by Twin Lakes in that area out there dried up and more and more people were moving in. And we did not have water coming out the Colorado River and we had a situation we had to face up to an alternative water supply had to be found. And in 1970 the southern Nevada water system was built to bring Colorado River water into Las Vegas. The 60 million dollar first stage opened in June 1071 with a capacity to deliver one hundred thirty two thousand acre feet of water from Lake Mead. Rapid growth in the Las Vegas Valley necessitated the $200000000 second stage with a capacity to handle more than 300000 acre feet a full allocation to southern Nevada in 1980 to the capacity of a water treatment facility was doubled to 400 million gallons per day. A massive facility is located on 40 acres of land near Lake Mead.

We bring the water in from a low lift pumping plant approximately a hundred fifty foot below surface put in coronation at that point for pretty disinfection bring that water into the treatment plant and add. Right now of ferric chloride which is a chemical that would combine all of the particles in the water the dirt the plankton whatever else is in the water. Combine those together to make larger particles that's called flocculation. We then put that into a filter and gravity flow through a filter and collect those particles in that builder to clean it up and post coronate. Post disinfect as it were and deliver the water. Since Lake Mead is one of the lowest points in the valley water must be elevated for delivery to Las Vegas. It's all done by electric power two electric motors on pumps therefore pumping is one of our major expenses. To move the water from Lake Mead to the treatment facility and then a high lift station twice to get into the

valley. Electricity accounts for 20 to 25 percent of water bills in Las Vegas and the water district spends more than 12 million dollars a year on power. In order to keep our costs that while the plant operates at capacity in summer months during off peak power rate periods. Colorado River Commission has a contract with Nevada Power to utilize the least expensive power which is produced at night. And we then pump it 400 million gallon a day rate for that 12 hour period. Meeting the demands of water demands of the customer and not utilizing the peak demands of power during the day. Continued growth in southern Nevada will force the plant to operate more hours of the day driving up power and ultimately water cost to consumers. Southern Nevadans have grown extremely dependent on Colorado River water. However there are fears that the Colorado River is over appropriate and on paper more than 15 million acre feet of Colorado River water is contracted to seven states and an international

agreement guarantees one and a half million acre feet to Mexico. That totals sixteen and a half million acre feet while an average annual Colorado River Flow is only 13 to 14 million acre feet. Scientists estimate that the greenhouse effect could reduce that by as much as 40 to 50 percent. None of the four upper basin states Utah Colorado Wyoming or New Mexico is using anywhere near its allocated water. Of the three lower basin states California is using its full appropriation. Arizona will be by 1994. Nevada is using two thirds and could be its full amount by the year 2000. California is allocated 4.4 million acre feet. Arizona 2.4 million and Nevada share is only three hundred thousand acre feet. But if the Colorado River can't deliver enough water to fulfill the contract each state will be cut back by an equal percentage. A state agency that oversees the distribution of water from Lake Mead is the Colorado River Commission. It was created

in 1935 to contract for power withdrawal from Boulder Dam. The CRC represents Nevada concerning Colorado River water issues with other states and the federal government. The Colorado River Commission is required to hold in trust for the state of Nevada to share Colorado River water that has and Secretary of Interior. We hold it in trust for the state. Right now we're at the state of Nevada is allocated 300000 acre feet of water of consumptive use. There is a court case called Arizona versus California that does that defines consumptive use as being the amount of water actually diverted from the Colorado River to less water is returned. Presently Nevada receives return flow credits of one hundred to one hundred fifty thousand acre feet for its treated sanitation water that has returned to the lake that allows the CRC to grant contracts for four hundred eighteen thousand acre feet of water in southern Nevada.

If the water is available there is they could tell one of Nevada's a lot of Colorado River water that there is a primary system is set up whereby there will be a reduction in water to our various contractors based upon a priority of use that goes from the color of commission to the people it is contracted with. When it gets past that level as to where the can to curtail bottled water comes as a local issue can the Colorado River Commission go to the federal government and say we're growing so rapidly we need more than 300000 where you go obviously tried to do that except that there are seven other states who are competing for the same water resource. Is that I think what you want also see you're the you're the sovereign government of Mexico also can complain about other states utilization of color over water another state agencies with state engineers office is in charge of groundwater resources. The legislature some years ago declared all water above and below the surface of the ground to belong to the public or the people of the state of Nevada.

And back in 1905 created an agency known as the state engineers office for the purpose of bringing some some order to the management and allocation of that resource groundwater is used to supplement the Colorado River water supply. It's an over appropriated basin very candidly. The amounts of ground water being withdrawn from the basin far exceed nature's ability to replenish that that supply and as a result there are things like active land subsidence us some water quality deterioration in the declining water tables ground water gradient reversals occurring in the basin. Nearly 70000 acre feet of ground water is used annually with a natural replacement of only 25 to 35000 acre feet. The state engineer must approve any new Well drillings the permits are granted only if the property can't be served by an existing water district.

And Las Vegas 200 to 300 new wells are drilled each year an issue that permits subject to revocation when water becomes available from the Las Vegas Valley Water District. At that time the permit is required to hook up to the district and plug and seal well and we have issued a multitude of revocation orders here in the basin in the late 1960s the state began revoking well permits and has cut back ground water use since then by 20000 acre feet per year. However the main water supplier in southern Nevada has non revokable rights to withdraw 40 thousand acre feet from the ground annually. The Las Vegas Valley Water District is a publicly owned nonprofit agency created by the legislature in 1947. It began supplying water in 1954 to 8000 customers. The water district is really the largest water supplier in southern Nevada. We probably have a water district use approximately 80 to 85

percent of all the water that comes through what is known as a subordinate at a water system. It's only 80 percent of the water that we're delivering is coming out of the Colorado River. But 20 percent is coming out of the glass. Water is supplied to the city of Las Vegas and most of Clark County except Henderson Boulder City North Las Vegas and Nellis Air Force Base. The agency has developed estimates of one Southern Nevada will use its full allocation of Colorado River water including nearly one hundred fifty thousand acre feet of return flow credit optimistically that could handle a population of one and a half million to around the year 2020. Pessimistic estimates predict alternative water sources would be necessary by the year 2000 with a population of one million. An unforeseen jump in water consumption in 1988 indicated that the day of reckoning about the water supply situation is rapidly approaching what it suggests is that we face say some.

Water Supply demand problems a lot sooner than perhaps we previously thought. Under a worst case scenario we could have problems within two to three years. If you want to make some assumptions that will slow down somewhat. Perhaps you're talking maybe for 5 years but we have to face. We have to face some serious policy questions a lot sooner than perhaps we or perhaps all of us would have hoped. You're saying worst case scenario we could be facing a pension two to three years. And planning has to be done years ahead of time. Is that a cause for concern. Planning is like anything else it's a dynamic. Process and some things have happened in all walks of life and in Nevada in the last three to five years whether it's water transportation we're growing in the last couple of years I think by any measure you want faster than everybody who is planning and diligently working on that could have predicted. I can't think of of anybody that I know who's been here.

Who will say I can honestly say that even as recently as 1985 they foresaw what's happening in 1987 88 89. Since 1985 a dozen new golf courses have been completed or started construction and massive hotel expansions have increased per capita water consumption rates while three to four thousand new residents move to the valley each month and Las Vegans are major water users. The evidence can be seen daily as lawns are overwatered and runoff pours into the streets. I don't know if I would use the term water wasting We use a lot of water here compared to a lot of other people in the country and around the world in the desert southwest residents of Tucson use an average of one hundred sixty one gallons of water per day. In Phoenix that per capita rate is 250 gallons per day. But Las Vegans use an average of more than three hundred sixty gallons of water each day. In 1987 the Arizona legislature limited

artificial lakes filled with drinking quality water to one acre. The 1989 Nevada legislature faced the same issue. The same thing had happened in Arizona and tell it was a feeling that there was some restriction of weeks particularly as a residential community. And there was some general acceptance that there were some restrictions on that. It was very difficult to convince the populace gee we had to maybe think about how we can be more efficient in our water use and that's the primary reason for pursuing it is to eliminate what has become a real image problem a credibility problem. However research shows that the issue of artificial lakes is more than one of image preliminary research reveals that equivalent size lake and grass areas like a golf course use similar amounts of water when evaporation from lakes is compared to irrigation of grass. However artificial lakes commonly lined with Clay also

leak. So we're looking at leakage rates that are going to be going to pushing the evaporative rates rates to be much higher in other words a total loss from an artificial lake could be depending upon how it's designed. Could be much higher than the equivalent area being put in the turfgrass. In addition to the quantity of water quality of drinking water must be maintained. The one in the U.S. that you tap is it is safe to drink it meets all the federal guidelines that are set forth forth in the A Safe Drinking Water Act and we make sure that throughout the year by sampling water and testing it for the various constituents that are required by law. So it's really good to drink. I think that people really find objectionable I find is the hardness of the water has a high mineral content so that people find a set of clean That means water spots in the glasses or the taste is objectionable because of some of those minerals that are found in the water as alternative and more expensive sources of water are found for Southern Nevada.

The price of water to consumers will increase to maintain both quantity and quality beyond cost. Southern Nevadans will probably face a variety of restrictions on water use. I do think that this could be just like just about everybody else in the West. There will be more restrictions on the way people in general will be allowed to use water I think could change things. Those kind of things. There probably will be a lot more planes of those kinds of things existing in the year 2000 and they are rapid growth in the Las Vegas Valley is also straining other water related systems including sewage treatment. The Clark County Sanitation plant is treating more than 45 million gallons a day with a combination of three plants. In addition the city of Las Vegas is operating at capacity treating 37 million gallons per day and it plans a 60 million dollar expansion to add 25 million gallons per day to its capacity

like water delivery systems sanitation facilities must also plan for growth. We watch the zoning approvals very closely. We do have an idea about how much waste water can flow all say from a hotel room or a single family residence and we can project out in the future about the type of flows that we can anticipate and in the preceding years. Looking at that and then back stepping from that and how long it takes to put facilities online we can plan and say okay we better start today if we want this much capacity say in the year 1993 or 1994 all treated wastewater must meet EPA standards. Because Southern Nevada effluent goes back into Lake Mead the return flow credits it has even stricter quality standards. Any time a local entities discharge into a federal body of water and especially when that federal body waters are drinking water. Certainly it makes it more difficult or at least people are going to keep a much closer watch on what kind of waste water's going without value once. Early in 1909 the Colorado River Commission granted permission to the Clark County

Sanitation District to sell its treated effluent but all of the sudden it started to become thought of as a resource just like our drinking water as a resource. Well selling treated effluent to water golf courses a run power plants maximizes water use on the one hand on the other it cuts down on return flow credits and ultimately how much water Nevada can extract from the Colorado River. While too little water can be a serious problem for Southern Nevada too much water at one time can wreak havoc. The Las Vegas Valley is tilted high on the West Stand up towards the mountains and low on the east and near the Las Vegas wash and Lake Mead. That puts many parts of the valley at risk of flash flooding. Taxpayers refused to vote any funds for flood control until 1984 when several floods caused seven deaths and nine million dollars in property damage. Parts of Clark County were declared a disaster area. The 1985 state legislature created the regional flood control district for comprehensive planning

and funding of flood control facilities in southern Nevada. Protection is planned for a 100 year flood with a series of flood channels and detention basins and all of that into businesses is just a very low them around the order of 20 to maybe 60 feet high. So we temporarily store the water so all that water that was occurring over a three to four hour period. We're going to release it very slowly over 24 to 72 hour period so that we reduce the playing downstream and that's the key to the plan the plan is different in anything I think that have been done in this valley before in terms of job. We want to protect the existing property owners or existing residents of Clark County. And we also want to accommodate growth the regional flood control district is funded by a sales tax increase from five and three quarters to 6 percent. That sales tax became effective in. March. Of 1987.

And it will generate about 15 million dollars annually for flood control projects. We estimate that will cost about four hundred million dollars. To protect those of us who live here now and that's a problem that was neglected for years nobody did anything about it at all from a build out of the valley. We expect that the total cost in 1986 dollars will have been about eight hundred thirty five million dollars. So it's not cheap. The flood control board is comprised of representatives of area municipalities in January 1989 they were called upon to decide whether a proposed like development to be built in the Las Vegas washing Henderson would be safe. The project included a three hundred twenty acre lake residential housing hotel casinos and recreational facilities. The board rejected the project for safety and flood control reasons not based on the issue of water waste in an artificial lake. We're trying to stick to the issues here as we see and which are primarily the impact. On the presidential master plan. We don't want to grant a variance for

something that will cost the district more money in the future as a result. We don't want to grant a variance to allow something that will limit our options for different for them to outearn this in the future either. That's what this really boils down to from our perspective is it is a request for a variance to build an obstruction in a flood way of the district. However the Flight Control Board is a political body. The bass brothers of Texas became involved in the venture and an unusual amount of national political and economic pressure was brought on the board after the January vote no changes were made to the lakes at Las Vegas project and a new federal report cited possible life threatening danger if it were built. But the board reversed itself two months later and approved the controversial development in the issue of water use home builders with projects around recreational lakes and golf courses have been singled out as the bad guys. But their economic future also depends on a continued water supply. The worst thing that can happen from a builder's point of view and from a community's point of view is that a moratorium is imposed.

Home builders say they build and landscape to create what people want to buy. Basically what we're doing is we're creating what people want. We spend an awful lot of money in terms of market research questionnaires and surveys of asking people what is it they want. People vote with their checkbooks. You know the successful communities are where they buy. Some see higher priced water as the main impetus for water conservation. You want to eliminate waste and water prices so the people can't afford to waste it. In fact I think the pricing mechanism is a lot better rather than having cops going down the street giving people citations for having water spill into their gutters. You could install landscaping systems that would use less water. But those things unless they gave us some competitive advantage in other words unless they would save the customer money. It's hard for us to justify doing it but in the public sector I think there's been some some weaknesses because the issues haven't been fully addressed and we're just beginning to hear that there is a it is a problem a combined effort by concerned individuals business leaders and government representatives

created a vision to examine the water resource situation. Aqua vision was formed a few years ago here in Las Vegas by a kind of a number of enterprising. People that were showed concern that that maybe 50 years from now we would have this resource that we call water would have a finite end and that we should probably start thinking about. What's going to happen. I am a bringing forth all these facts and figures that was really kind of held and not held but only known by a few government officials that that was their job to understand these secondarily. We will be paying attention to those issues that might be fostering our goals. And then we will do everything we can to add support to those. One of the programs Aqua vision is sponsoring is a change to water efficient landscaping at

local. Schools. Of Clark County School District is a major water user in the Valley Nevada Cooperative Extension is involved in two important phases of water usage research and education. Our role is to help to educate both commercial and residential users of the best methods to use water. Their delivery system. A research project to determine water waste in grass watering is being conducted in conjunction with the water district and the College of Agriculture at UN our turf net began as a free site Project at the Sahara and Spanish Trail golf courses and a horseman's park. We're testing for the uniformity in the distribution of water. Just one of many ways to test how efficient a system is. We've got to put hundreds of cups. And an irrigation system. And then we look at the efficiency of your geishas system. If as an example one site that we were not to had an irrigation efficiency of 62 percent.

And we moved one irrigation hit five feet we're only five feet lead established in addition efficiency of 95 percent after room and just simple things like that can mean that we will get a higher efficiency and have a better use of our own water. Probably some of our best water managers even though they get probably the largest amount of bad publicity are large turf areas most mostly are golf courses. The amount of water that they do waste very small compared to. What we're estimating the homeowner is using while golf courses may be watered efficiently. They still use massive amounts of water and are the most likely to invest in changes to maximize irrigation. But the large commercial turfgrass areas they're looking at savings of 30 40 thousand dollars a year easily. Those are the kind of people are going to use it first. Those are the people that have to make a dollar they have to make a profit. So they're going to be looking at trying to cut their costs anywhere they can.

Eventually homeowners will be able to benefit from the research. We hope to be able to train our staff. To go out at a nominal fee. And work with people that would like to reduce their water waste commercially and residential to help homeowners plan more water efficient landscaping. Some nurseries now offer water usage ratings on plants displayed for sale. These are similar to energy ratings on home appliances. Another educational program is sponsored by cooperative extension in conjunction with a water district pilot program aimed at a seven to nine thousand Clark County fourth graders began in the spring of 1989. We did an assessment of the curriculum and realized that that's where the students get into learning about climate. What creates the desert. The water cycle in the program is conducted in two segments. The first traces the water cycle in the Las Vegas Valley from Lake Mead into the southern Nevada water system through the water district into homes and back out to the lake via the

sanitation plants. In the second part of the program we have an active learning game. Which we have named are divided into water drops and water users grow out competing for the water supply. By the time most children are adults the Las Vegas Valley will either have plans for more water and lowered consumption or they will face a radically adjusted lifestyle in a desert community. For more information on Wise water use call Nevada cooperative extension at 7 3

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