The rule change will only affect new courses within the city limits and unincorporated Clark County. New courses could use groundwater rights if they have them, and existing courses will be able to continue to use municipal water from the river. The Colorado River supplies roughly 90% of Southern Nevada’s water and while golf courses only account for about 6 percent of the region’s total water use, most of the water that courses use cannot be returned to Lake Mead, unlike what is used for residential and other commercial needs. Nevada saw its allocation of Colorado River water cut for the first time in history earlier in 2021.
New golf courses that come to Las Vegas, Nev. won’t be able to use Colorado River water for irrigation, a municipal water board has ruled, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
The rule change, approved unanimously by the Las Vegas Valley Water District board, will affect only new courses coming to the city of Las Vegas and unincorporated Clark County, the Review-Journalreported. Existing courses will be able to continue using municipal water from the river.
“Restricting the use of municipal water resources for new non-essential, water-intensive uses such as golf courses will help to minimize additional stress on current water supplies and aid the District in maintaining reliable service to its customers,” the water board said in announcing the new regulation.
The decision comes months after federal officials declared a water shortage for Lake Mead, the source of about 90 percent of Southern Nevada’s water, the Review-Journal reported. The shortage declaration will slash Nevada’s allocation of water by about 6.8 billion gallons next year.
Under the rules approved by the Water District board, new golf courses could use groundwater rights if they have them, but may not use Colorado River water delivered by the Las Vegas Valley Water District, spokesman Bronson Mack told the Review-Journal.
The cities of Henderson and North Las Vegas outside of Las Vegas do not have similar regulations on the books and are not currently considering adopting any, the Review-Journal reported.
The change does not reduce the amount of water being consumed in Southern Nevada, the Review-Journal reported. but does prevent additional consumptive use from golf course irrigation.
On average, golf courses in Southern Nevada consume 725 acre-feet—about 236 million gallons —every year, the Review-Journal reported. One acre-foot is about what two Las Vegas Valley homes use over the course of 16 months.
Golf courses account for about 6 percent of Southern Nevada’s total water use, Mack told the Review-Journal, while residents use about 60 percent of the area’s water.
Most of the water used at golf courses is used for irrigation or lost to evaporation and cannot be returned to Lake Mead, according to the water district, the Review-Journal reported.
Water conservation in Southern Nevada depends almost entirely on outdoor use, the Review-Journalreported, because nearly every drop of water used inside is treated and sent back to Lake Mead for later use.
Golf courses have taken steps to conserve over the past two decades, replacing about 900 acres of turf—the equivalent of nine professional courses—from non-playing areas, Mack acknowledged. That’s enough turf removal to save about 22 billion gallons of water over that time period.
The most recent golf course to open in the Las Vegas Valley was The Summit Club in 2017, the Review-Journal reported.
The Colorado River supplies roughly 90% of southern Nevada’s water and is yielding less water than it did a century ago, when seven Western states agreed to divide up shares, the Associated Press reported. In August 2021, after years of drought decreased the amount of water flowing through the river, Nevada and Arizona’s allocations were cut for the first time.
Though southern Nevada doesn’t use its full allocation of the Colorado River, it has implemented a series of conservation measures in recent years to limit grass and prepare for a drier future, the Associated Press reported.
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