Lyon commissioners approve plan to reduce water use

In an effort to reduce the consumptive use of Lyon County Utilities customers, Lyon County Commissioners approved a new water table.

The new table was worked out by the State Engineer and Lyon County Utilities, but Utilities Director Mike Workman said it will not have an impact on most Dayton residents.

The commissioners approved modifications in a previously approved ordinance that will replace the existing water rights table with a new one that calculates water rights for subdivisions and planned-unit developments.

Workman said the state engineer's consumptive use numbers and his were the same, except he preferred the county allow a higher amount of acre-feet to be used per multi-family unit or mobile home in a park.

He said this table was more in line with actual usage in the Lyon County Utilities service area.

"I'm recommending we take a more conservative approach on the multi-family units," he said. "Last year we did a consumptive-use profile for multi-family units and that's where I got my numbers."

He said he would monitor the use of multi-family units and bring it back to the board for further modifications if it needed to be adjusted.

The state engineer's evaluations were based on the consumptive use profiles developed by comparing water meter readings from the last five years, Workman said.

The modification will also leave a property owner that is using more water in acre-feet annually than is allocated with four options.

They can either dedicate additional water rights to Lyon County; reduce consumption on an annual basis; pay a fee equal to double the amount over 5,000 gallons per month allocation; or face a flow restriction device at the water meter, installed by the utility at the property owner's expense.

The proposed modifications will be before the board again in August, where Workman said he would have details on what the cost could be to residents in each service area.

Workman said in Mound House right now the cost is $4.96 a thousand gallons over the 5,000 gallons allotted, and that cost has helped to bring water use down.

Commissioner Don Tibbals said overuse was due to a lack of understanding by residents of the drought conditions in Nevada.

"I don't think people realize how low that river is," he said. "Even though there's, 2,000, 3,000 or 4,000 acre-feet in the reservoir, you can't get it out of the river. It's not there to get."

Proposed modifications

• 0.39 acre-feet for a 4,000-square-foot lot

• 0.6 acre-feet for an 8,000-square-foot lot

• 0.72 acre-feet for a 12,000-square-foot lot

• 0.88 acre feet for a 20,000-square-foot lot

• 0.99 acre feet for a 32,000-square-feet lot

• 1.05 acre feet for a 43,000-square-foot lot

Multi-family units

• 0.35 acre-feet per unit