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Las Vegas Valley Water DistrictThe Las Vegas Valley Water District (LVVWD) is a not-for-profit water supply agency that has been providing water to the Las Vegas Valley since 1954. The LVVWD was created by the Nevada State Legislature to begin the process of using Nevada's water allotment from the Colorado River to provide water to the areas in and around Las Vegas, Nevada. This was done in hopes of curbing the massive usage of groundwater which was the main supply of water to the City of Las Vegas and many parts of the Las Vegas Valley at that time. Today the District, as a part of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, provides water to the City of Las Vegas, the unincorporated areas of Clark County, Nevada including Paradise, Nevada, where the major Las Vegas Strip hotels are located, Kyle Canyon, NV, Blue Diamond, NV, Searchlight, NV, and Jean, NV. The Clark County Commissioners serve as the Water District's board of directors. The board appoints the general manager, who carries out day-to-day activities.
Bringing water to Las Vegas In the early 1960s the Las Vegas Valley Water District in cooperation with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the Colorado River Commission began the design of a system of treatment and distrubution facilities to bring water from the Colorado River for use by the various municipal water providers in Southern Nevada. This project was called the Southern Nevada Water Project (later renamed the Robert B. Griffith Water Project). The federal government, under the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, constructed the delivery portion of the project, which included a system of pipelines and pumping stations. These facilities and infrastructure were completed in two phases with the first stage becoming operational in November 1971, and was capable of providing 132,200 acre-feet of Lake Mead water annually to the project service area. Construction of the second stage of the project was initiated in 1977 and completed in 1983, brining the total amount of delivered water to 299,000 acre-feet. This project was later turned over to the Southern Nevada Water Authority in 2001 by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The other major part of the Southern Nevada Water Project was the construction of the Alfred Merritt Smith Water Treatment facility. This facility was built with state funds by the Las Vegas Valley Water District. Both of these facilities are now part of the Souther Nevada Water Systems, which is overseen by the Southern Nevada Water Authority. The project provides the Las Vegas Valley with more than 75 percent of its annual water supply, serving more than one million people in the Las Vegas Valley and Boulder City areas.
The LVVWD Today Today the Las Vegas Water District is continuing to provding water to the people of the Las Vegas Valley and the millions of tourist who visit every year. In addition to this important duty, the LVVWD is also working hard to promote and demostrate water-saving activities. As the population of the Las Vegas metropolitan area has exploded, so has the demand for water, putting a strain on the limited water resources in Las Vegas' arid desert climate. In 1980 the LVVWD opened a Desert Demonstration Garden, show casing smart desert landscaping. Today, the LVVWD is working with partner agencies to promote smart landscaping pratices so that it can continue to provide its customers with water well into the future. Another major project, which is still in its early stages is the Las Vegas Springs Preserve, which is an effort to save and restore the original birthplace of Las Vegas, the Las Vegas Springs, which are located on the same property where the LVVWD has its main offices and groundwater-pumping well field.
Las Vegas Valley Water District Homepage Southern Nevada Water Project History, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
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