The SNWA finds success by partnering with the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association to create the Water Smart Home Program.
The population of the United
States is expected to increase by some 100 million people within the next 40
years. Regions of the country where the economy is doing reasonably well can
expect to continue to see big population spurts. The city of Las Vegas, NV, is
still growing fast, and, as each year goes by, this rapidly expanding population
also needs housing—and water.
Despite one of the highest
population growth rates in the country, Las Vegas receives some of the lowest
amounts of annual rainfall, averaging 4.49 inches per year. More than 15 years
ago, the region realized that something had to be done with water use planning.
It wasn’t a moment too soon.
Enter SNWA
The Southern Nevada Water
Authority (SNWA) is a cooperative agency formed in 1991 to tackle Southern
Nevada’s unique water needs on a regional basis. SNWA administrators manage the
region’s water resources and provide for Las Vegas Valley area residents’ and
businesses’ present and future water needs.
Essentially, the water wholesaler
for southern Nevada, SNWA, is directed by a seven-member agency, comprised of
representatives from each of its member organizations. These member agencies
provide water or wastewater services to southern Nevada, and include: Big Bend
Water District, Boulder City, Clark County Water Reclamation District,
Henderson, Las Vegas, Las Vegas Valley Water District, and North Las Vegas.
The SNWA’s mission—to manage the
region’s water resources and develop solutions that will ensure adequate future
water supplies for the Las Vegas Valley—could not be more timely, in light of a
prolonged drought plaguing the western US.
The agency’s responsibilities are
all-encompassing. Its crucial goals include: managing all water supplies
available to southern Nevada through an approved water budget, managing regional
water resource management and conservation programs, ensuring regional water
quality as determined by state and federal standards, allocating and
distributing among water purveyors Colorado River water and any other water that
becomes available to southern Nevada, long-term water resource planning,
presenting a unified position on water issues facing southern Nevada, as well as
building and operating regional facilities to provide a reliable drinking water
delivery system to all member agencies.
In a Place of Great Change and
Growth
For us, growth is purely an issue
of the economy,” says SNWA Conservation Manager, Doug Bennett. “People go where
there’s employment that will provide for their families.”
The numbers of people moving into
the area may be somewhat predictable, but not the water supply.
“Our water comes from the high
mountain reaches of Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado,” Bennett says. “Typically,
there is water somewhere. The issue will become trying to get it from one place
to another. It’s not like electricity, where we have a big national grid.”
According to Bennett, water will
be getting more expensive—both in terms of infrastructure, and supply. Water
conservation has already come into the equation in the housing situation:
Builders have been told they can build in the area, but only with certain
conservation measures in place.
“The SNWA has implemented a
program stating that for new residential construction, front lawns are
prohibited and grass is only allowed on 50% of the area of the back or side
yard,” says Tom Bradley, public information spokesman for SNWA. “This was
something that came out of the SNWA; however, the local municipalities and
governmental entities actually implemented it. If you were a developer and you built a
new house here, you could not put grass on your front yard.”
A Partnering of
Associations
The Southern Nevada Home Builders
Association (SNHBA) partnered with the SNWA to create the Water Smart Home
Program. The SNHBA spent over a year with the building association working with
the water authority program that SNWA now administers.
“The SNHBA takes great pride in
their involvement in bringing water efficiency to a desert community,” says
Monica Caruso, director of public affairs for the SNHBA. “Water efficiency for
the building industry started around 1999 or 2000. The SNWA presented an award
to KB Home, the largest homebuilder in our community in terms of sales, at about
that time, for having an all-xeriscape model home complex.”
Caruso points out that the
homebuilder industry at first didn’t even have anything to do with home
landscaping. Homes used to be built, the site graded, and occasionally walls or
fences would be installed. Beyond that, it was up to the homeowners themselves
to do their landscaping. The mix started to change gradually, through marketing
and builder competition, with add-ons such as front yard landscaping.
In the late 1980s to the early
1990s, landscaping consisted of front yard turf, because that was what people
liked. “New residents came from green places, whether in California, the upper
Midwest, or the Northeast, and they attempted to create their little piece of
heaven in the Las Vegas desert,” says Caruso. “Water was cheap back then, and
the building industry was happy to accommodate their customers with front yard
turf.”
But, by the mid to late 1990s, the
SNHBA started working in conjunction with the water district to come up with
turf limitations. The SNHBA was at the table when decisions were made, according
to Caruso.
“I like to point out there has
been a process and evolution in our community, from consumer demand for
beautiful lush lawns, to acknowledgement of the fact that we do live in a
desert,” says Caruso. “Also, presently we are in the midst of one of the worst
droughts in recorded history of the Southwest, and the preciousness of this
resource has been brought into even sharper focus for us.”
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Photo: Courtesy of Southern
Nevada
Water Authority |
Turf removal: a water-saving method of landscaping |
Summerlin, NV, a 23,000-acre
master-planned community, was the first community to go completely with
xeriscape in their landscaping. Around 2003 or 2004, new developments like
Summerlin were built, where xeriscaping, drought-tolerant, and desert
landscaping were mandatory. There are now a number of master-planned communities
where grass cannot be planted.
But xeriscape certainly does not
mean ugly and desolate, Caruso points out. In fact, the landscaping is so
beautifully done that SNHBA even won a landscape architecture award for the
xeriscaping. The organization is now committed to water conservation and
efficiency. In 2005, the association partnered with the Green Building
Initiative, of Portland, OR, to create the Southern Nevada Green Building
Partnership. They also have at least four builders who have signed up for green
building programs.
“The building industry,
particularly with the leadership of the SNHBA, has been very much in line with
water efficiency and conservation in this community,” says Caruso. “We’ve really
tried to stay ahead of the curve with all this.
“We have no problem with all these
measures,” she adds. “The only real resistance at this point comes from
consumers; however, because these measures are all mandated—there is really
nothing that can be done about it. The consumer must get onboard with this
program.”
Homebuilder Works With SNWA
Astoria Homes works with SNWA to
implement the Water Smart Home program. Astoria is one of the largest locally
owned homebuilders in Las Vegas. It's been recognized for years for
energy-efficient homes through its Energy Star program. Now it has added water
in its next approach at conservation measures.
The program addresses the
landscaping, plumbing, and the equipment used in the home to make sure the Water
Smart program is met both inside the house and outside with the irrigation
program. Swimming pools or grassy areas for playgrounds are also taken into
account in the planning of the neighborhood, along with the design of the
homes themselves. Astoria Homes takes the Water Smart Home program and sends it
out to their vendors and sub-contractors who in turn take care of researching
and making sure the best quality-approved products are used.
Astoria Homes works closely with
SNWA and its coalition members by being very involved with conservation and
education. Astoria’s homeowner education program includes both pointers on how
the latest water-saving equipment works for new homes, as well as education to
raise awareness of lifestyle approaches when it comes to saving water or using
it more efficiently.
The homebuilder considers their
relationship with SNWA a complete partnership. They cooperate with the SNWA in
marketing the Water Smart Home program to customers.
“It’s amazing what can be done
with desert landscaping to make your home attractive,” says Sia Howe, vice
president of marketing with Astoria Homes. “Conservation of water also happens
to be the most affordable approach to landscaping, in addition to saving this
precious resource for this region. If everybody pitches in, from the builders to
the people who live here, it all can have an impact on water resources; it’s
important.”
Giving Technology a Chance to Help
SNWA requires that water customers
not have service pressure of more than 60 psi within their houses. The code
allows for up to 80 psi, but devices use more water and actually wear out faster
at 80 psi. They’re more likely to break or malfunction at that pressure. It’s
hard on devices to have a lot of pressure behind them. Parts such as washing
machine hoses are more likely to rupture, and when a faucet is run at 80 psi
more water is likely to come out and be wasted than at 60 psi. They get the
extra water savings, but they still have good results, because 60 psi is very
good pressure.
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Photo: Courtesy of Southern
Nevada Water Authority |
Desert landscaping, featuring drought-tolerant shrubs and
plants |
“No one wants to have the valve in
their toilet fail and always be overflowing,” adds Bennett. “As a result of this
decrease, we give our customers better longevity and results with their material
and equipment, as well as the water savings. Both mechanical efficiency and
water efficiency are improved in the end when those devices are operated at the
lower pressure.”
From a Water Purveyor’s
Prospective
The various members of the SNWA
all share the Colorado River’s water allocation. SNWA manages that allocation.
Though the Big Bend Water District (BBWD), in Clark County, NV, is one of the
smallest water purveyor municipalities, it likes being able to take advantage of
the programs SNWA offers for its customers.
The BBWD has an annual Colorado
River diversion right, through a delivery contract with the Department of the
Interior and the SNWA 1995 Cooperative Agreement. BBWD is assessed an annual fee
for SNWA operating expenses. The BBWD’s SNWA membership allows Laughlin
customers (the Township of Laughlin, population 8,700, is the only one serviced
through a water treatment plant right on the Colorado River) to participate in
rebate programs, such as xeriscape conversion, irrigation clock change-out, and
water-saving washing machines. SNWA also supplies water information literature
for customers. Due to being a rural community, SNWA is an excellent source of
information for BBWD water operations.
The Big Bend water treatment plant
is a direct-filtration plant, using ozone as its primary disinfectant. The
distribution system consists of 6 million gallons of storage. The BBWD generates
its own ozone with ozone generators and liquid oxygen onsite. Being a member of
SNWA gives BBWD access to programs it wouldn’t ordinarily be able to afford
because of its small size. This area is only operating at one third of its
capacity. The BBWD had thought there would be much more growth, according to
Kristine Hammond, administrative assistant for the BBWD.
Despite the area’s lower
population, it still takes advantage of SNWA’s water conservation program for
the removal of turf to install xeriscaping for rebates. The water authority
handles the program for BBWD so that it doesn’t have to worry about it.
“We have access to all of the many
programs featured on the SNWA Web site,” adds Hammond. “We do have an annual
bill, which we receive from them for administrative costs for membership. But
they have pro-rated it because of our size. Larger members pay much more than we
do. SNWA’s resources and expertise are a great aid if we do need some
help.”
Due to the fact that SNWA works
very closely with the Las Vegas Valley Water District (LVVWD), in an emergency
the LVVWD would step in and help out the BBWD also.
“It is definitely a plus for us to
belong,” says Hammond.