Water rules for decorative fountains and home car washing will go back to the drawing board.
The board of the Southern Nevada Water Authority sent the rules back to a committee of technical staff for revision today. The move was in response to the city of Las Vegas' new policy that would allow fountains to operate at commercial facilities if they remove turf or other landscaping for a 50 to 1 savings in water conservation.
The fountain and car washing rules, along with restrictions on new turf for residential and commercial development, are a product of four years of drought in the Rocky Mountains, the source of the Colorado River and 90 percent of Southern Nevada's drinking water.
The fountain rules had been agreed to by the city of Las Vegas, Clark County and the cities of Henderson, North Las Vegas and Boulder City earlier this year, but some commercial property owners have strongly objected to turning off their water fountains or similar water features.
Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, a water authority board member, defended the new city policy, which he said would do more than foster the impression of water savings but would provide real conservation.
"Not only do we have to deal with the perception but we have to deal with the reality," Goodman said.
Goodman received verbal support for the policy from Clark County Commissioner Mark James, North Las Vegas Councilwoman Shari Buck and Boulder City Councilwoman Andrea Anderson.
"Symbolic -- maybe that's important but the more important thing is that we save the water," James said. "Removal of turf is a thing that's going to structurally change things."
"In the long run that's the more fair thing anyway," James said pointing out that the exemption now in place for casino resorts could be included in a new fountain policy.
Clark County Commissioner Myrna Williams, however, sharply disagreed with the city's new policy, although she said she would likely support any policy that came from technical staff.
"I am still very disappointed," Williams said. "I don't think a bank would lose one customer if they didn't have a fountain.
"I think we have to look at the greater good and not special interest good."
Williams and water authority General Manager Pat Mulroy said if rules were changed for businesses, the rules should be tweaked for residential car washing as well.
Prohibitions on car washing were to take effect Jan. 1, but water authority staff members have been deluged by residents with complaints over the policy.
The technical staff of the county, the cities and the water authority should have the new rules to bring to the water authority board and the board's of the other affected governments in the region within the next several months, water authority spokesman Vince Alberta said.
Mulroy warned that under existing service rules, despite the city's change in policy, water fountains should be off everywhere.
"Right now every fountain in Southern Nevada has to be off," she said.
If the fountains are on, "they will be cited," she said.
Fines can go over $1,000 for failure to abide by service rules.
Mulroy also warned that restrictions on commercial fountains and residential car washing could come back if the drought continues. The region is now in a drought watch, the first of three stages. A drought alert begins Jan. 1. A drought emergency could begin one year later.
"If we get to drought emergency the world has to change," Mulroy said.
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