LAS VEGAS — Residents in Clark County are voicing concerns over what they describe as unexplained and excessive fines imposed by the Las Vegas Valley Water District. Lesley Feeney, a single mother in Clark County, said, “If this is happening to me and my neighbors, it is happening to other people.”
Feeney, who has been fined for watering her lawn too close to the pavement, said the penalties have been mounting despite her efforts to comply with the district’s standards. “And it is not just me, it has been my entire neighborhood. Pretty much anybody with grass, when I walk my dog, has a flag. So you start to notice a pattern,” she said.
The fines, which Feeney said could reach up to $1,000 when all is said and done, are pressuring her to convert her lawn to a desert landscape, a costly endeavor estimated by landscapers to be worth tens of thousands of dollars. “It is one thousand percent due to pressure from the water district that I felt it was either do the conversion or keep getting harassed,” Feeney said.
Sam Castor, a Las Vegas father and attorney, is taking legal action against the water district after his water bill surged by $1,000 in one month. Castor said the district attributed the increase to lawn overwatering, but two independent contractors he hired found his meter was stuck. “And I saw a guy in my neighborhood the next day that was with the district and I said hey, are you here to check my meter and he said why is it stuck and I said that is what I am told,” Castor said.
Castor believes the district is unfairly targeting large, family homes with grass lawns. While he supports water conservation, he expressed concern about the impact of removing greenery on the city’s climate. “We have created an oasis out of Vegas and the Las Vegas Valley Water District is turning it back into a desert,” he said…