A bill that would give the SNWA the power to limit water use in single-family homes in the Las Vegas Valley was approved by the state Senate.
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The lawmakers discussed a plan that would bridge protections for the Colorado River’s water reserves.
As much as one-third of Nevada’s normal share of the Colorado River would stay in Lake Mead, but officials say Las Vegas has been getting ready for this for years.
If the bill were to become law, Nevada would be the first state to give a water agency the power to cap the amount of water that flows into individual homes.
The Nevada Assembly voted 30-12 in favor of a wide-ranging water conservation bill that could lead to caps on residential water use in Las Vegas.
If approved, the legislation would make Nevada the first state to give a local water agency permanent say over how much water residents can use.
“Disastrous conditions have reshaped Lake Mead National Recreation Area’s one and a half million acres of incredible landscapes and slowly depleted the largest reservoir in the United States,” the senators wrote in a letter to the National Park Service.
The mountains that feed the Colorado River already have seen more snow this winter than they normally would through an entire snow season.
A Nevada assemblywoman introduced a bill this week that would prohibit restaurants from automatically serving water to customers.
One of the Colorado River’s two major reservoirs is expected to collect better than average runoff this year, thanks to an unusually wet La Niña pattern that dropped a deluge of snow up and down the basin.
U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen has come out against one idea to deal with shrinking water levels at Lake Mead, eliminating boat ramps rather than moving them to keep up with the decline.