Fall watering restrictions begin Monday
For local school kids, summer ended this week. For your landscaping, it ends Monday.
Sept. 1 marks the start of the fall watering schedule at valley homes and business, with irrigation use restricted to three assigned days per week through Oct. 31.
The restrictions from the Southern Nevada Water Authority and its member utilities apply to both sprinklers and drip irrigation systems, though only sprinkler watering is prohibited between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. until Oct. 1.
To find your assigned watering group check your last water bill or look it up at snwa.com.
Monday also marks the day when commercial businesses must shut off their mist systems until June 1.
The fall watering schedule will give way to the winter schedule on Nov. 1, when irrigation use is limited to one assigned day a week.
Homes account for most of the valley’s water consumption, and landscaping accounts for most of the water used at homes.
The landscape watering restrictions were adopted by the Southern Nevada Water Authority in 2003 as a temporary response to ongoing drought on the Colorado River, the source for 90 percent of the valley’s water supply.
Those rules were eventually made permanent and play a major role in a broader conservation program that authority officials say has cut Southern Nevada’s consumption of Colorado River water by more than a billion gallons, despite the addition of nearly 500,000 new residents during the past decade.
The community also has banned front lawns at new homes, limited grass at commercial properties, clamped down on fountains, misters and car washes, and plowed roughly $200 million into conservation initiatives, most of it to pay people to replace their thirsty turf with desert landscaping.
Contact Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350. Find him on Twitter: @RefriedBrean.