LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — "The buck stops here."
That's the message the Southern Nevada Water Authority has been sending to customers who use too much water, charging them an excessive use fee to slow the flow of the valley's diminishing resource.
For several years, 13 Investigates has tracked the top water users in the valley, looking now to see if the crackdown is working.
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It's been a long way from 1922 when the Colorado River Compact was signed, allocating water based on what they thought nature would provide over a specified period. However, nature had other plans, leaving states that rely on the river with less and less of that life-sustaining resource to be shared by more and more people.
That means water conservation is essential, so is accountability for those who use more than their fair share.
From over-usage, to mindful and cautious is what the Las Vegas Valley Water District is hoping will happen by hitting heavy users in the wallet.
"The Las Vegas Valley Water District implemented its excessive use charge in January of this year," says Bronson Mack with the Las Vegas Valley Water District and Southern Nevada Water Authority.
All customers pay $1.46 per 1000 gallons for the first 5,000 gallons of water used. After that, rates get progressively higher--the more you use, the more you pay.
The gallon threshold for the excessive use charge varies based on seasonal watering restrictions. Excessive users are charged $9.00 for every 1000 gallons--that's a 500% increase over the base rate.
Steep to be sure, but it's a rate most of us will never pay.
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"It's geared toward the top 10 percent of our community's water users, especially in the residential sector," says Mack.
And the water district says it's already working for about half of that top 10%.
"Which tells us that about half of our highest water users are already proactively taking steps to reduce their water use so that they don't incur that fee," says Mack.
There's a reason the water district is targeting that tier.
"The top 10 percent of residential water users consume about 35 percent of all of the water that is delivered to residents," Mack explains. With many residential properties using more water in a single month than the average household uses during an entire year!
"I think what we're seeing throughout the Las Vegas Valley is that those who have a lot of green in their bank accounts still have a lot of green in their yards and their landscaping," says Kyle Roerink with the Great Basin Water Network.
Last summer, 13 Investigates reported on the top users with the most recent available data, which was from calendar year 2021. We've requested and are still waiting for the 2022 data.
Topping the list in 2021, a 16-acre property in Spanish Gates with ties to the Sultan of Brunei. That property had been soaking up the most water for several years--using more than 13-million gallons in 2021.
For perspective, the water district says the average home uses about 120,000 gallons a year.
In that 2021 data, a mansion belonging to the Adelson family in the exclusive TPC Summerlin Community used nearly 11 million gallons.
Lorenzo Fertitta of Station Casinos, who also lives in TPC Summerlin, used more than 9.5 million gallons in 2021. That's about 75 times more than the average household.
It's important to remember the different ways we use water in Las Vegas.
Non-consumptive water is what's flushed down toilets or goes down drains in our sinks and showers. That water is captured, treated and pumped back to Lake Mead to be used again.
Consumptive water includes what evaporates from swimming pools and is lost in evaporator cooling systems. Most consumptive water is used in outdoor landscaping. Once that water soaks into the ground, it's gone.
That's partially why the excessive use fee varies by season.
"We are in spring now, which means that you can use upwards of 14,000 gallons per month before you begin to incur that excessive use charge," says Mack. "That threshold will increase in summertime to 28,000 gallons a month and then drop back down to 26,000 gallons a month in Fall."
While a cooler, wetter winter helped a bit to replenish our supply, we are still in a decades-long drought, and we can't depend on the extra snowfall we're seeing in California and Colorado. So, the excessive use charge is here to stay.
"Absolutely," Mack says. "It is meant to be a punitive cost for those water users that use an outsized proportion of water."
The Southern Nevada Water Authority is also working on a new program to try to mitigate outsized water use on the commercial side.
"So that our economic development community can better assess what the impacts will be of bringing new industry into Southern Nevada on our water supply," he said.
They're calling it the Water Investment Rating Tool. Potential new businesses in the Las Vegas valley would be rated on water use in addition to factors such as how many employees will be hired and potential tax revenue.
"If you're bringing in manufacturing, that is going to be high consumptive water use," says Mack. "They're probably going to get an extremely low rating in that water investment tool. That then may discourage them from coming to Las Vegas entirely."
Nevada lawmakers are also considering an Assembly bill that, under dire conditions, could authorize restrictions on water use in single-family homes. It would also reduce the number of septic tanks in the state, establish standards for irrigation fixtures in new construction, and restrict the use of groundwater under certain circumstances.
KTNV will keep you posted on the progress of that bill, and we'll update our reporting on the top water users as soon as we get the 2022 data.
