There’s a softer side to water conservation in Henderson.

This desert city, the second largest in Nevada, has numerous restrictions on outdoor water use and a team of city employees to enforce them. It also celebrates customers’ achievements in water conservation.

Since 2022, Henderson has presented an annual Water Conservation Award to a business or resident for a significant contribution to the cause. It recognizes achievements in water-efficient landscape design, renewable water policies and practices, environmental stewardship, community outreach, water loss reduction, employee education, water savings contributions, process optimization and other accomplishments.

BEYOND ENFORCEMENT

“Part of the reason we started an award was that sometimes when you hear water conservation, you only hear about enforcement,” says Juliana Castiblanco, senior utilities business analyst for the city. “Don’t use too much water, using too much water is expensive, and so on. This way we can focus on what good is being done around water.”

In 2022, the award’s first year, the winner was the Anthem Country Club, which removed large amounts of decorative grass, replacing some with artificial turf and some with water-smart grass. Turf that was considered functional was not replaced.

Nonfunctional turf is a grassy area that is too small for people to use for picnics or casual games, such as tossing around a football. It could be the parkway between a sidewalk and the street. “It’s turf that probably the only the person stepping on it is the one who maintains it,” Castiblanco says. “That’s what is considered nonfunctional turf here in Southern Nevada.”

REMOVING THIRSTY TURF

A golf course has lots of functional turf, and the club was able to replace some of it with less thirsty varieties.  

“You need some amount of turf at a golf course in order for their business to thrive,” Castiblanco says. “For them, a solution was using artificial turf or changing their turf that is not meant to thrive in a desert to turf that is native to here, so that it uses less water when they’re maintaining it.” In total, the country club’s turf replacements and conversions save almost 60 million gallons of water annually.

In 2023, the award went to the Sun City Anthem Community Association, which also saved a great amount of water by removing turf. The association removed 109,300 square feet of nonfunctional grass and installed 40 water-smart controllers. It documented more than 150 million gallons of water saved since it began conservation projects in 2018.

The smart controllers were for the community association’s irrigation system. “They have more capabilities than just your older irrigation clocks that are at many facilities,” Castiblanco says. “So they’re able to control how often the grass or outdoor landscape is irrigated, right from their phones. On the random day that we do get rain, they can shut off the landscape watering.” The controls are not required, but they acquired them anyway.

GROWING INTEREST

Five department heads or other high-ranking officials in the city administration judge the contest. Candidates are judged on innovation and creativity and on the amount of water saved. Nominees quantify their savings and provide documentation if possible.

Self-nominations are accepted. In the first year, there was only one nominee. In the second year there were three, and city officials hope that the number continues to grow as people hear about it from their neighbors.

The city promotes the contest through social media and on the city’s website. The winners are recognized at a city council meeting. They also receive a plaque for display. “We do a good job at advertising who wins and why they won,” Castiblanco says. “We hope the news spreads and neighbors or the company across the street hear about it.”

While turf grass conversions make a big impact, not all the nominations center on turf. One nominee was a man with a pressure-washing business who had devised a way to recycle the water he uses. But for impact it’s hard to compete with turf grass replacement. Castiblanco estimates that every square foot of turf eliminated saves 55 gallons of water per year.