Nevada is leading the rest of the state in water recycling, the report found

Nevada is leading the other six states when it comes to recycling the most valuable resources in the Colorado River Basin, a new report confirms.

Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, looked at wastewater data that are often inaccessible, and showed that Nevada is leading seven states in reuse rates of 85% of wastewater. There were no standardized reports across the country, which often meant calling individual treatment plants and asking for data.

“It’s not every day that Nevada has the right to brag about a serious environment,” said Mark Gold, a professor at UCLA and director of water rarity solutions at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Arizona tracks Silver State as the second most innovative, with 52% of its wastewater being reused. Wyoming and Utah were last dead, at 3.3 and 1% respectively.

California will reuse approximately 22%. The report says that recycling just 30% of the wastewater could increase savings by around 993,000 acre feet.

As the basin is hotter and dry with more available water than ever before, researchers are asking the state and federal governments to take a closer look at water reuse as a solution, said Noah Garrison, UCLA water researcher at the Environmental Research Institute.

“The focus is always: How do you save allocations? How do you build more storage? Does it really just take more water from the river? It’s not making new water,” Garrison said. “Washwater reuse is one of a set of practices that you absolutely need to invest if you intend to meet these challenges.”

Las Vegas, a symbol of excess, is still leading

From the outside, it may be difficult to believe that the destination of a flashy resort called Sin City is extremely water-efficient.

But the 12-mile-long artificial river called the Las Vegas Wash was a water recycling effort, bringing more than 200 million gallons of water back to the lake every day. Many of them deal with wastewater from plants across the valley.

“Our indoor water use is a permanent movement machine,” said Bronson Mack, a spokesman for the Regional Southern Nevada Water Department. “We were able to turn on all the showers and faucets in every hotel room on the strip, as all the water we consume from the Colorado River is safely and sustainably returning to the lake.”

Dan Fisher, deputy general manager of Clark County Water Reclamation District, said the county is reclaiming nearly 110 million gallons of wastewater per day.

“All of our wastewaters have to be addressed to some of the country’s strictest standards, and that’s what we do,” Fisher said. “We know that the future of our community depends on it, so we’re always working to make it better at how we do it.”

Much of Nevada’s success in understanding this can be attributed to policies that emerge from need, according to Gold of UCLA.

The Colorado River compact split the river in 1922, and Las Vegas was just a part of the metropolitan city that it turned out to be. So the leader gave the state only 300,000 acre feet.

Water sent back to Lake Mead generates return flow credits that grant you the ability to use more water than is permitted by the compact. These credits will become increasingly important to Las Vegas’ rapid growth, with UNLV’s forecasts predicting Clark County adding 698,000 residents by 2040.

“In places like Nevada, there’s no choice,” Gold said. “That incentive is always there because you don’t have enough water to just roam around. The return flow credits are a game changer.”

Seek action

Researchers said there are many reasons why some states are far behind Nevada.

In some states, lack of funding for $1 billion projects and strict state water laws could prevent wastewater reuse. But sometimes it’s a lack of prioritization, they said.

The report calls on the Environmental Protection Agency to work with the state on setting wastewater reuse targets, improving data collection and developing funding mechanisms for the project.

“All seven states need to start working together,” Gold said. “There’s nothing in this world more important than water. It’s part of our infrastructure and we haven’t invested properly in it.”

Recycling has been boosted by some state-to-state cooperation, with Nevada spending $750 million in 2021 on a pure water treatment plant in Southern California.

If the state and federal governments boldly commit to wastewater reuse efforts, researchers said a total of 1 million acre feet of water could be returned to the system within 10 to 15 years.

2025 Las Vegas Review Journal. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency and LLC.