It is estimated that if all major municipal users in the Basin met that goal the savings would be 1 million acre-feet of water per year. “We are talking about a pretty significant amount of water,” Beckwith said. The Basin Study presents “a good picture” of the states’ water conserva- tion efforts, though “one definitely gray area” is how urban and agricultural conservation is embodied within the different projections of demand, Jerla said.
Before and after example of water- smart landscaping in Las Vegas: a round-about conversion from lawn to desert landscaping in the Summerlin community.
“When we evaluated the projected supply and demand imbalances, and the role [of] agricultural and urban conservation in reducing that imbal- ance, we had to consider that the states had already built some level of conser- vation into their projected demands,” she said. “It was a challenge to try and extract that level and then look at additional Basin-wide conservation on top of that.”
The drive for increased conserva- tion comes as the region realizes there is less available water. It has been reported that 35 percent of stored water has been lost since 2000 and that dry conditions have contributed to more severe wildfires. The report notes that low river levels have affected recreational activities in places such as Glenwood Springs and Dolores, Colo., and Moab, UT.
Read about the economic contributions of outdoor recreation on the Colorado River by Protect the Flows
“A glance at Lake Powell’s 70- foot ‘bathtub ring ‘illustrates the stark, potentially irre-versible truth: the Colorado River is shrinking by the second – and water demand is growing by the day,” the coalition report says. Beckwith said each community’s numbers differ so much because of the variation in outdoor irrigation practices. On the indoor side, technological developments and new plumbing code regulations means the rate of use will continue to decrease. “The outdoor side falls on societal preferences, specifically in the way new homes are built,” he said. SNWA, which has facilitated local ordinance amendments, has changed the landscape of Las Vegas residences through rules that limit the amount of turf. The effort has paid off, with resi-
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dential water use decreasing from 122 gpcd in 2002 to 75 gpcd in 2010. “That’s the way the rest of the Basin needs to go,” Beckwith said. “We live in a water scarce area and we need to think about what really is an appropriate use of water.”
Cutting outdoor water use “is the next big thing” for MWD’s service area in the arena of water conserva- tion, Kightlinger said, adding “for us, that holds a lot of potential for Southern California” because we have made tremendous strides on indoor conservation.
The district has directly incentiv- ized changes in outdoor irrigation with a focus on smart sprinklers and outdoor irrigation practices, and has invested in educating people about “California Friendly” landscapes. MWD has also partnered throughout Southern California in getting golf courses, parks and other large users on recycled water. Still, Metropolitan’s large service area of more than 5,200 square miles means there remains a lot of work to be done on outdoor water use.
Changing water use habits through incentive programs such as paying peo- ple to tear out their lawn takes money. However, Beckwith said the money is well-spent considering the price of some supply augmentation options. “The question becomes when you get into some of those higher levels of conservation that take a lot of money, like a turf program, where else are they going to get the water?” he said. “And if that’s a pipeline from the Missouri River or a giant desalination plant in San Diego or the Gulf of California, it’s almost always cheaper to get that water through efficiency than those kinds of projects.”
Law and Order: The Colorado River Compact
Management and allocation of the Colorado River inevitably raises the question whether the existing matrix of rules known as the Law of the River are capable of guiding the process in the future or whether a new version is needed, based on modern sensibilities