In Las Vegas, the water authority patrols the streets to prevent waste : NPR
In Las Vegas, a team of water officers patrols neighborhoods to make sure people do not waste water. The fines, according to the city, have helped reduce water wasted in an area in the drought.
Ari Shapiro, host:
Millions of tourists in Las Vegas may not think twice about the conservation of water, but residents have been doing, and for years, the city’s water authority has patrolled in the streets to ensure that water is not wasted. Yvette Fernandez reports from Mountain West News Bureau.
Yvette Fernandez, Byline: Devyn Choltko leads through a district of Las Vegas with lights flashing on her patrol car. She stops when she sees the water flowing in the street. Choltko is one of the nearly two dozen investigators who patrol each day in Las Vegas, in search of signs of water waste. She records what she sees.
Devyn Choltko: investigator of water waste 9393 – It’s Wednesday July 23 at 6:14 am
Fernandez: In this case, a common problem – a violation of spraying and flow.
Choltko: badly aligned sprinklers and on irrigation causing a runoff, and water is making its way from the property and at the bottom of the gutter.
Fernandez: Las Vegas relies on the water of the Colorado river, as are millions of other people in the seven states that make up the Colorado river basin. River levels have dropped over the years, and drought, exacerbated by climate change, has been constant for decades.
Bronson Mack: It is a drought, and it is a type of slow natural disaster.
Fernandez: Here is Bronson Mack. He is spokesperson for Southern Nevada Water Authority.
Mack: You don’t realize that you are in a drought until you already have a deep size. And it was in 2002 when the Colorado river was deep in drought.
Fernandez: Thus, in 2003, the Southern Nevada Water Authority began storage efforts, including water patrol. Since then, the Water Authority has carried out almost half a million surveys on water waste. Mack says that at the beginning, the water patrol distributed quotes to around 20% of residents.
Mack: While we look at this today, we are closer to 10% or less of the owners who have a survey on water waste take place in their property who end up receiving costs.
Fernandez: The costs start at $ 80 for the first violation and continue to double if the problem is not resolved. The costs collected are used to support other water conservation efforts, such as incentives and lawn elimination discounts to install intelligent irrigation systems. The other cities with robust water conservation efforts include Phoenix, San Antonio, Santa Monica and Miami-Dade.
Ron Burke: So that we can support a reliable and affordable water supply, we will have to continue to look more at these water saving strategies.
Fernandez: It’s Ron Burke. He is CEO and president of the non -profit alliance for water efficiency (PH). Burke says that these total water conservation efforts will help communities adapt to climate change. These programs also help educate residents and encourage people to take their own steps, such as reuse their gray water to water factories.
(Soundbite of closing the car doors)
Fernandez: In Las Vegas, Choltko shoots his patrol car in another house with a common problem.
Choltko: You can see the heavy water runoff due to the irrigation leak.
Fernandez: The water flows on the sidewalk instead of entering the roots of a desert plant. Choltko calls this a dysfunction.
Choltko: Dysfunctions can cause a lot of water waste in general, simply due to the potential for them to get worse so quickly.
Fernandez: This is why when a dysfunction is spotted, Choltko does not just put a yellow flag in the ground on the problem. She looks at the story and warns the team that will follow up with a telephone call. Southern Nevada Water Authority provides support for leaks detection and financial assistance to low -skilled low -income residents so that they can make the necessary repairs. But Choltko says that repeated violers are faced with a penalty.
Choltko: This property has already been informed of these violations, so costs are recommended.
Fernandez: The water patrol, as well as the recycling of water, have borne fruit, explains Bronson Mack, with the Water Authority.
Mack: We have reduced our water consumption from the Colorado river by more than 30% in the past two decades.
Fernandez: Mack says it happened while the city’s population has increased. He says Las Vegas now provides less water to more people than the city 20 years ago.
For NPR News, I am Yvette Fernandez in Las Vegas.
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