27 May 2009

Nevada Relies on Colorado River for Las Vegas’ Needs

State looking to conservation, innovation to meet demand for water

 

Nevada receives the smallest allocation of Colorado River water of any state.

Nevada receives the smallest allocation of Colorado River water of any state.

By Nancy L. Pontius
Special Correspondent

Littleton, Colorado — Nevada is allowed to take 370 million cubic meters (300,000 acre-feet) annually from the Colorado River — the smallest allocation of any state. This supply provides 90 percent of the water used in the Las Vegas area for homes, industries and businesses, which includes using water to cool air conditioners.

“Most of our water use is from outdoor watering, [which is] our largest opportunity to decrease per capita consumption,” George Caan, executive director of the Colorado River Commission of Nevada, told America.gov.

“We have put into place a variety of [strategies] to reduce outdoor water use, [which] have been very successful and have allowed us to live within our Colorado River allocation for the last five to 10 years, even with the tremendous growth we have experienced,” Caan said.

“Our major challenge is improving our conservation ethic in the valley,” he said. To reduce outdoor watering, Nevada uses the following:

• Ordinances for grass lawns, such as those for new homes, which ban the use of grass turf in front lawns and allow 50 percent of backyards to contain grass.

• Outdoor watering regulations, which restrict the days of the week and time of day when watering is allowed. “Water police” issue warnings, and sometimes fines, for noncompliance.

 

The Hoover Dam is one of the most recognized dams in the United States.

The Hoover Dam is one of the most recognized dams in the United States.

• Incentives for lawn removal, which pay homeowners and businesses to remove lawns and replace the grass with qualifying desert-plant landscaping.

These regulatory tools are intended to “govern how economic development is tied to water management,” Caan said.

People are accepting these conservation efforts, Caan said, citing payments for turf removal as having been “extraordinarily well-received” by homeowners.

“One very unique quality of our water [usage] is that we [use] water from the Colorado River and then, after treatment in our wastewater plants, return the water back to the river,” Caan said. “This functions effectively as a water recycling program, allowing us to divert additional water, as long as we return it to the river and don’t consumptively use any more than our [share].”

Nevada and other states are considering innovative strategies to make more Colorado River water available during times of drought and to keep the river healthier, Caan said. For example, Nevada has purchased water rights from farmers and ranchers who receive water from outside the Colorado River system. Then, this land has been taken out of production, and the water saved will be delivered to Lake Mead to augment the Colorado River.

Another project — the Drop 2 Reservoir on the All-American Canal — may allow storage of surplus river flows that are bound for Mexico, but are not counted toward the 1,850 million cubic meters (1.5 million acre-feet) obligation under the Mexican Water Treaty of 1944.

The Colorado River Commission of Nevada ensures that the state takes only the amount of water the state is allocated, and represents Nevada in all federal, interstate and international discussions regarding river management and operation.

More information is available at the commission’s Web site.