Water-use rules aren’t going away any time soon

This dry spell will end some day, but the front lawn might never recover.

Rules adopted in 2003 to help Southern Nevada ride out the drought are now becoming permanent across much of the valley.

With few exceptions, that means a ban on new front lawns and strict limits on how much thirsty grass residents are allowed to plant in their backyards.

It also means that assigned watering days and other restrictions on sprinkler use will not fade out when the drought finally does.

The move is an acknowledgement that the community must use water wisely in good times and bad if it wants to thrive in North America's driest climate.

"For many of the drought measures, they tend to look like common sense for living in the Mojave Desert," said Rick Holmes, director of environmental resources for the Southern Nevada Water Authority.

Local water managers first floated the idea of making the drought measures permanent several years ago.

In 2005, it was among the recommendations made by the authority's Integrated Water Planning Advisory Committee, a 29-member panel made up of developers, environmentalists, business leaders, rural ranchers and others affected by the agency's plans.

Henderson and North Las Vegas already have made the change. Boulder City should join them next month, and Las Vegas is likely to follow in September, Holmes said.

That leaves Clark County as the only holdout.

County officials are in no hurry to make the existing drought rules permanent, because the existing drought shows no signs of ending.

"If and when conditions change, we can revisit the issue then," said county spokeswoman Jennifer Knight.

Though the rules vary slightly from city to city, the current drought restrictions generally include assigned watering days and seasonal watering restrictions; tightly controlled water budgets for golf courses; limits on decorative fountains and driveway car washes; development codes that prohibit turf grass in front yards and restrict it in backyards; and incentive programs that rebate money to people who replace their lawns with desert landscaping, install swimming pool covers or make other water-efficiency improvements.

Some of those restrictions might eventually find their way to Laughlin, where the Las Vegas Valley Water District recently took over operation of that city's treatment and delivery systems.

"We would look for consistency among all communities that use Colorado River water," Holmes said.

The Southern Nevada Water Authority serves as the wholesale water provider for the Las Vegas Valley, which draws 90 percent of its supply from the Colorado by way of Lake Mead.

The community was roundly criticized in the past for its wasteful water consumption. The alleged lack of a conservation ethic seemed particularly galling to opponents of the water authority's plans to pipe groundwater to Las Vegas from across rural eastern Nevada.

Critics still contend that Las Vegas' efforts to save water don't go far enough. But there is no disputing the amount of progress that has been made.

Since 2002, the Las Vegas Valley has reduced its overall water consumption by about 20.5 billion gallons, despite the arrival of 400,000 new residents and nearly 40 million annual visitors.

Water authority spokesman J.C. Davis said a majority of those conservation gains can be traced to valleywide efforts to replace thirsty grass with desert landscaping.

"The two big factors were not allowing any new stuff and ripping out the old stuff," he said.

There are still lots of front lawns across the valley, of course. Five of the seven water authority board members have grass growing in front of their homes.

But the grip on grass appears to be loosening.

When Irma Morris moved into her northwest valley home seven years ago, she paid to have her front lawn expanded to about 520 square feet. Early last month, she paid someone else to come rip the whole thing out.

"I was just tired of messing with it," she said. "I'm grass free."

Now Morris' kitchen window looks out on a pair of Mediterranean palm trees surrounded by decorative rocks, a few boulders and some flowering desert shrubs.

Several of her neighbors also have given up their grass.

"I'm sure my water bill won't be any higher than it was," Morris said. "So I have that to look forward to."

The shift in attitude here is nothing short of amazing to Holmes, who moved to the valley in 1979.

Back then, he said, residents took an "oasis approach" to life in the desert. It was hard to find desert plants at local nurseries, let alone staff members specializing in desert landscaping.

"It was a huge difference over what you see today," Holmes said.

As little as a decade or so ago, people regularly complained about neighbors who converted their lush yards into "rock piles." Now people talk about "upgrading" from grass to desert plants and trees, Holmes said.

"This is really a significant shift from protecting yourself from the desert to embracing and living in the desert," he said.

The water restrictions soon to be made permanent are the tightest by far among Southwestern cities that draw from the Colorado River.

No other major city in the region -- not Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix or Tucson -- limits grass at homes.

Only a handful of communities in California require watering on assigned days and at specific times. Everywhere else, water conservation is recommended, not required.

Despite the use of restrictions here, Holmes insists conservation efforts are now being driven by the community, not its water agencies. He said most local residents have come to embrace the idea that conservation is more than a reaction to a dry winter or a shrinking lake; it's a way of life.

For that reason, Holmes doesn't expect much outrage or controversy when the current restrictions become permanent.

If residents react at all, he predicts many of them to say, "It's about time."

Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean @reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350.