By most counts, Las Vegas oozes excess. But this glittering oasis in a desert, and its surrounding environs, are finding big success in a lack of excess when it comes to conserving a life-sustaining commodity: water.

And now, some 240 miles away in the booming inland region of Southern California, one county is taking an approach similar to Las Vegas’ by mandating that water used for landscaping—which normally accounts for 50 percent or more of all residential water use—does not go to waste.

The most recent chapter in the Las Vegas Valley’s water history began in 2003, when the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) board adopted a drought plan, made permanent in 2006, that put into place strict landscaping measures: No new turf in front yards of new homes, with turf in back and side yards not allowed to exceed 50 percent of that area (with size restrictions). In addition, the plan restricts sprinkler watering to three days a week in fall and spring and one day a week in winter. Residents can water any day of the week during the summer, although not between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m.

Also in 2003, the SNWA board upped the incentive for its turf replacement program, giving owners of existing homes $1 (increased from 40 cents) per square-foot of grass removed and converted to water-smart landscaping. SNWA recently doubled that amount to $2.

For Southern Nevada, these regulations are making a difference in a region that continues to grow—the population of Clark County alone, which includes Las Vegas, is projected to increase 68.5 percent in the next two decades—and where residents use up to 70 percent of household water outdoors. SNWA General Manager Pat Mulroy says the “typical” single-family, three-resident home that used to consume an acre-foot a year now uses a half acre-foot.
At the time SNWA was working on its drought plan, Metropolitan was also rolling out a panoply of programs and activities with a newly-coined term—California Friendly®.

The California Friendly campaign sought to move beyond the tried-and-true methods of ultra-low-flush toilets and low-flow showerheads. Among the goals—slash over-watering of landscapes and to persuade water customers to voluntarily embrace attractive alternatives to turf grass.

Other objectives included getting homes and businesses to embrace the latest generation of water-saving devices, and to see how the commercial and industrial sectors could achieve the same kind of water savings already seen in the residential sector.

Since 2002, Metropolitan has invested more than $7 million in promoting California Friendly programs. It has included attention-getting billboards and radio/television advertisements, along with a bewaterwise.com Web site that advertises rebates and water conservation tips while publicizing thousands of attractive varieties available for use, including many native species. The 2006 advertising campaign, for example, promoted rebates on “smart” irrigation controllers, high- efficiency toilets and clothes washers.

Meanwhile, Metropolitan began working with businesses to start tapping into the looming market for California Friendly products. As a result, several major homebuilders have begun offering California Friendly options in model and production homes.

Over the past few years, drought-tolerant plants that were once difficult to find in Southern California stores have become increasingly available and visible, thanks to partnerships with The Home Depot and 57 independent garden retailers and in-store workshops, promotions and giveaways.

Many of those plants are decorated with a California Friendly logo, part of a larger “branding” effort to create an easily recognized, trusted label that could apply to homes, schools, gardeners, businesses, or entire cities.
And conservation, particularly when it comes to landscaping, will remain a permanent part of the resource picture. For example, builders involved in new construction in Nevada have embraced the program. “When builders are told that’s what they have to do, as long as it doesn’t give them a competitive disadvantage in the area, they get very creative,” Mulroy notes.

As for local homeowners, though many initially were “fraught with anxiety,” they’re making the adjustment. For newcomers to the Nevada region, Mulroy says, “The key is people need to appreciate the environment they’re moving into. It’s an arid region and people need to live accordingly.” Those who don’t, and violate the water ordinances, are subject to fines after a warning—but most address the problem before it gets to that point.

So SNWA sees long-term positive results and responses to its regulation-driven approach to reducing outdoor water use. Will this approach work equally as well in the burgeoning Inland Empire in Southern California?

Riverside County Supervisor Marion Ashley and Randy Record, a Metropolitan Director and chair of the Riverside County Water Task Force, think the answer is yes. In a county where the population grew 26 percent just from 2000 to 2005, they spearheaded the December 2006 adoption of the “Water Efficient Landscape Requirements” ordinance, which applies to all new homes and businesses in the county’s unincorporated areas.

The ordinance mandates, among other requirements, that plant species with similar water demands be chosen and grouped to facilitate efficient irrigation with a water budget formula; that irrigation systems be designed to prevent runoff, overspray or drainage; that landscaped areas be provided with weather-based irrigation controllers; and that planting areas be grouped in relation to moisture control zones based on water requirements. The ordinance also incorporates a Riverside County California Friendly Landscaping Guide to assist home and business owners in choosing plants.

“Basically what we’re trying to do is change the culture,” says Record. “A modern, appropriate landscape looks good and really does make the best use of water.”

Record and Ashley led an approximately two-year-long process to develop the ordinance with input from developers, irrigation companies and numerous other stakeholders. Ashley says there’s been no negative pushback from the public—“there’s really no resistance after they see the overall benefits.” These benefits include lower water bills, with a home that meets California Friendly landscaping standards using about 30 percent less water than a new home with typical landscaping built today, which translates into annual bill savings of about $100 to $120 in the region.

Ashley notes that about 200 people move into Riverside County every day, increasing demands on already-tight water supplies and adding to the urgency of conservation programs. “Although we’re not at [Las Vegas’] ‘have-to’ point, we’re rapidly reaching that,” he says.

The ordinance covers about a quarter of Riverside County’s 2 million residents (those who live in unincorporated areas). As a next step, Ashley and Record want each of the county’s approximately two dozen cities, plus its numerous water districts and agencies, to adopt a similar ordinance to create a united, cohesive approach —what Ashley calls “water tight— enforceable and universal.”

After that, the next step involves looking at a Las Vegas-style method for addressing existing landscaping and perhaps developing incentives for more efficient water use outdoors.

These current and proposed future actions, Ashley and Record say, complement the county’s existing leadership in resource planning—from developing the countywide Water Task Force to create dialogue between planning and water agencies, to using California Friendly landscaping at county facilities, to adopting a habitat conservation plan for additional environmental protection.

“The county was really aggressive in trying to take care of all of its resources up front,” Record notes. “Looking at water is another step in that process.”

This focus, policy experts say, comes none too soon. A 2006 report from the Public Policy Institute of California indicates that the state’s population is expected to increase by about 11 million residents over the next 25 years, with more than half of the growth in the hotter inland communities—where typical residential outdoor water needs are likely two to three times higher than along the coast.

The report says that whether regulatory solutions are required remains an open question, but does note, “Outdoor water conservation will need to be an important policy focus in many parts of the state, both to limit increases in water demand and to free up water supplies to accommodate new residents.”

Susan Lien Longville, Director of the Water Resources Institute at California State University, San Bernardino, agrees, while pointing out that the effort to create low-water-use landscaping in new construction “is just the tip of the iceberg in the overall water use for urban landscapes.” New growth is phenomenal, she says, “but existing infrastructure is a much larger piece of the puzzle. Most regions don’t have an effective message that will change the behavior of people who control the outdoor faucet.”

While the Las Vegas Valley addresses such behavioral changes today, and Riverside County steps up its focus on the challenge, Longville believes that the answer to future challenges of water supply and use in growing arid regions lies with education. “In a generation we changed the paradigm on recycling solid waste,” she says. “We did it with the kids. There’s a tremendous opportunity to make our children the ambassadors on this one as well.”