‘Phenomenal progress’: Water use in Southern Nevada inches toward goal

Water savings in the Las Vegas Valley are soaring despite population growth, largely thanks to a wetter-than-normal 2023 and persistent conservation efforts over the past 20 years.

The Southern Nevada Water Authority accepted its 2024 water resource plan and budget Thursday, setting goals for the upcoming year and taking inventory of the ongoing Colorado River crisis.

It also approved an increase for single-family homeowners to remove non-water-efficient grass and a near $35.2 million incentive for the Clark County School District to convert school fields to artificial turf and update its landscaping.

For 2023, preliminary numbers show the valley’s water use at 89 gallons per person a day, compared with 104 in 2022 and 235 in 1990.

Colby Pellegrino, the water authority’s deputy general manager, still issued a word of caution: A wetter and cooler year accounts for a reduction of about 8 gallons per person a day, but that won’t last. Years in which there has been extra water to fill critical reservoirs are notoriously followed by drier, hotter ones, she said.

“I wouldn’t be surprised to see the same thing we saw in 2020 after the really wet year in 2019,” Pellegrino said. “We would see our gallons per capita and our use go up next year. But, overall, we’re still making phenomenal progress.”

Addressing the urban heat island effect, the authority has an up-to-$100-per-tree incentive to increase shade and allocates toward canopy cover.
“Landscaping cannot overcome the urban heat island effect, but … shade is the most effective thing at managing [it].”

Colby Pellegrino, deputy general manager
Southern Nevada Water Authority

Among the measures the authority has taken over the past few years is implementing what are known as excessive use charges — controversial fines of $9 per 1,000 gallons consumed over a set amount of water that varies by season. Managers also have banned the installation of new septic systems that don’t allow for water reuse, reduced golf courses’ water budgets, limited swimming pool sizes and more.

The authority’s goal is to slash the daily use to 86 gallons per person, spokesperson Bronson Mack said, even in the face of what’s bound to be a drier 2024.

“If we can get to 86, we can extend our water supply out for the next […]

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