LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The deadline is looming for seven states using Colorado River water to submit plans for water cutback plans.
As water levels at Lake Mead and Lake Powell continue to drop, the Federal Bureau of Reclamation called for the submission of water cutback plans — and the deadline is Monday.
Water conservation efforts are moving forward in Southern Nevada from the federal government all the way down to the local level.
On Friday, Samantha Flaherty, the Client Relations Manager at Encore Landscape Management, showed KTNV what turf removal — one of the most basic water conservation efforts in the valley — looked like.
Nonfunctional turf has to be removed by 2027 and Flaherty was preparing with her team to remove grass from one Summerlin community on Monday.
It's conservation efforts like this that the water district says need to continue to keep Southern Nevada a leader in conservation, but more restrictions are coming.
Bart Miller, the Director of the Western Resource Advocates for the Healthy Rivers Program, says the situation is still getting worse.
The federal Bureau of Reclamation called for the submission of cutback plans from the seven states using water from the Colorado River on how they each plan to cut down on water use by Jan. 31.
Miller says a bigger plan to keep as much water in Lake Mead and Lake Powell as possible is needed.
Late last year, the bureau said, 'Well, we have to take some action to remedy this and avoid having that reservoir — and Lake Powell upstream — get down to critical levels, where it won't even be able to generate hydropower'," he said.
The Southern Nevada Water Authority submitted its plan first, which includes tougher water cuts of about 2 to 4 million acre-feet to its largest users. Experts also say that states cannot rely too heavily on the snowpack in the Rocky Mountains this winter, because while it's larger than average for this time of year, it's still not enough.
Miller adds, "Reservoirs might bounce back 10 or 15 feet, but some of the reservoirs like Lake Powell and Mead are 150 or 180 feet below."
That's why conservation efforts like this in Summerlin are key.
Flaherty adds, "A lot of commercial properties are big on it right now, and we don't know how long the rebates will last."
Flaherty says many businesses in Southern Nevada recognize the critical importance of saving water since most of the water loss in the Las Vegas valley is from landscaping.
The deadline for the plans is coming up on Monday, but a formal plan is not expected by the Bureau of Reclamation until summer.
