“Tere’s no two ways around that,” he said. “Te Lower Basin faces significant shortages and that’s bad for the juniors – CAP and Southern Nevada – but it’s also bad for California.” Despite the alarm of a falling Lake


Mead, officials in Southern Nevada believe years of planning have put them in a good position to weather the storm while seeking innovative water savings proposals. Las Vegas has several years of water banked or stored in the Lower Basin.


“I think the misperception in Las


Vegas is that we don’t have enough water,” SNWA General Manager John Entsminger said in an article published Nov. 11 in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “We’ve done a tremendous job of driving down our demand. Because of that, we’re in a good position water quantity- wise.”


Lochhead acknowledged the concern that some people have that water conserved through fallowing or limited alfalfa cutting will just create that much


Getting the ‘Biggest Bang for the Buck’


One possible destination of pilot pro- gram funding is the city of Needles, the desert community of 5,000 people that sits on the edge of the Colorado River and is seeking funds for several different options to improve water use efficiency. “We are desperate to find a way


to curtail our water use,” said David Brownlee, assistant city manager. Te three options for saving water


involve the city’s 162-acre, 18-hole golf course, which it proudly notes is the only course on the Colorado River in the tri-state region. Te course, which uses more water than the city’s residential property owners, is a natural target for water use efficiency and “the most efficacious way is to remove turf and also put in a modernized irrigation system,” Brownlee said. Te present irrigation system, about 50 years old, requires a night attendant to move sprinkler heads around, among its other short- comings. “If you have a brown spot you


have to deploy the whole section,” Brownlee said. “It’s very inefficient.” Te city is seeking between $1 million and $3 million for different project proposals. Te “most costly” would be the removal of 40 percent of the turf at the golf course,


Winter 2014-2015 • River Report • Colorado River Project • 7


Brownlee said. Te turf areas would be converted to desert foliage with drip irrigation. “We would winnow it down to a course that’s playable and a little more challenging and it would achieve our water conservation targets,” Brownlee said.


Another option would replace 25


percent of the turf and install a new irrigation system. Te water savings for that are “minuscule” on an annual basis, but the city is focused on what can be achieved during a 10-year span, which would be 1,600 acre-feet, Brownlee said.


Finally, the city proposes to install


“purple pipe” to use recycled water to irrigate the golf course. Te waste water treatment plant processes 350,000 gallons each day, some of which could “backstop” the 6,000 gallons used each day on the golf course, Brownlee said. Because wastewater would have to be cleaned to a level that meets state standards, a testing laboratory would have to be added to the treatment plant. Te project would be “the biggest bang for the buck,” Brownlee said, with a savings of 3,900 acre-feet during a 10-year span.


more water for urban use. “We talk with ag association people and one of the concerns expressed is that this is just one way to create more water for Las Vegas, which is obviously not true,” he said. “Te water that would be created would be system water – it would go into Powell and Mead and not be marked for any municipality.” In addition to the pilot program,


Arizona officials say they are working with major agricultural customers to retain even more water through the


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