Combating drought and promoting sustainability in Southern Nevada

Editor’s note: As he traditionally does every August, Brian Greenspun is turning over his Where I Stand column to others this month. In presenting this year’s series of columns from community leaders, we feel it is important that our readers, trying to emerge from the ravages of the pandemic, hear from some of the people who can help guide us to better tomorrows. Today’s guest is U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat who has represented Nevada in the Senate since 2017.

Everyone in the West knows that we’re living through a historic, two-decade drought. The climate crisis is making droughts worse, putting pressure on all of us to use the water we have more wisely. When I was elected, I knew confronting water issues would be one of my top priorities. I’m doing everything I can in the U.S. Senate to help my hometown and all Western communities address drought and water shortages.

I’m inspired by all that Nevadans have done to conserve water and strengthen our water supply. Nevada has pioneered water solutions, from recycling water to use at public parks to removing water-intensive decorative grass on highway medians. As a result, greater Las Vegas is using less water than it did 20 years ago, even though the population has increased by 750,000 during that time. I admire how resourceful Nevadans are, and I’m not at all surprised to see us coming up with creative solutions for our needs.

One of the most cutting-edge tools to prevent water shortages involves recycling wastewater. To take advantage of this innovative technology, I wrote legislation to support large-scale water recycling projects in the West, including one that will specifically help the Las Vegas Valley. Water recycling plants use screens and filters to clean water used in homes and businesses. They add microbes that can eat the organic material in the water. Some processes sterilize and clean the water in other ways. The result is water that’s safe to drink. Israel, which leads the world in water recycling, reclaims 90% of the water used indoors, mostly for irrigating crops.

We’ve been recycling water on a small scale in the Silver State for a while, but to address our longterm needs, we need to go much bigger. Last year, the Southern Nevada Water Authority in Clark County agreed to partner with Southern California to build the largest recycling project in the country. When it’s finished, the plant will recycle up to 150 million gallons of water a day — that’s enough water for 500,000 households. That will let California reduce the amount it draws from Lake Mead and ensure we have a more sustainable water supply right here in Southern Nevada.

But it’s an expensive process; you need a lot of energy to filter and purify the used water. When it comes to plans with that price tag, the federal government has to chip in, especially because the solutions

help entire regions.

To kick-start this critical investment in our water supply, I made sure that that the infrastructure bill the Senate just passed includes legislation I wrote to provide $450 million dollars in competitive grant funding for big water recycling projects in the West, including the Nevada-California project.

The bipartisan infrastructure package is major legislation that will do great things for Nevada, including building water infrastructure and drought resilience, preventing and fighting wildfires, and investing in clean technologies to combat climate change. But water is the most essential of all these needs, and I’m proud to have secured support for critical water recycling across the Western United States. We also need to make sure to safeguard the supply of water coming from the Colorado River into Lake Mead. That’s why I worked to pass the Colorado River Drought Contingency Plan in 2019, which is a historic agreement worked out by local leaders from all over the Colorado River Basin to protect that vital source.

And we need to continue to make smart choices about how we use the Colorado’s supply. Clark County has recently crafted a comprehensive climate mitigation plan to help Las Vegas grow sustainably and combat drought. The plan supports everything from reductions in greenhouse gas emissions to wetland rehabilitation and stormwater management. The Southern Nevada Economic Development and Conservation Act will give Clark County the flexibility it needs to institute these environmental protection policies and plan for a sustainable future.

I grew up on the edge of the desert. Drought isn’t new to me. But the pressure extreme weather puts on our water supply is the challenge of our time, and combating it will take innovation, creativity and collaboration. I look forward to continuing my work in the Senate to help Nevadans build a sustainable Las Vegas.

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto