Wet ’n’ mild: Your guide to Southern Nevada splash pads

Kyle B. Hansen

Children play in the water at the splash pad at Madeira Canyon Park during the park’s grand opening in 2009.

By J.D. Morris

Sunday, July 27, 2014 | 2 a.m.

If you’re a parent in the valley, summertime likely means frequent trips to a splash pad, those mini water parks that offer children a quick, easy way to cool down from the heat.

Local families have plenty to choose from: parks and recreation departments in Las Vegas, Henderson, North Las Vegas and Clark County oversee more than 60. Most are in parks and are open during the year’s hottest months. City officials keep them dry the rest of the year.

They come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some are elaborate, with waterfalls, pirate ships and whimsical themes. Others are simple — just holes in the ground that shoot cold water. The Bark Park at Heritage Park in Henderson has one for dogs.

Where the water comes from

Water for splash pads comes from the same place that supplies water to your home. Instead of pipes directing the water to your shower or faucet, the water, diverted from Lake Mead, is sent to the splash pad. That means it is just as clean and safe to drink as the water that comes from your tap.

How it gets there

Domestic water lines typically carry too much pressure for splash pads, so water has to be depressurized before it is ready for use. It passes through a backflow device, then a pressure regulator that keeps it flowing in the right direction before it arrives at a manifold. When a parent or child pushes a control button on a splash pad fixture — a water launcher or rain tree, for example ­­— the manifold sends the water to the device. The buttons are powered by a computerized system.

Where it goes next

Once water comes out of a splash pad nozzle, it’s hardly gone forever. Most parks use a flow-through system that drains water from splash pads back into municipal pipes. The pipes send it to a treatment facility, where it’s treated as wastewater and sent back into Lake Mead.

• The exceptions: Mission Hills Park in Henderson and Clark County’s Goodsprings Park use a recirculating model, which works like a swimming pool. Water is filtered, chemically treated and prepared for use on-site.

Las Vegas spokeswoman Diana Paul said flow-through splash pads are easier to clean than recirculating ones because water is constantly funneled away.

“In a recirculating system, the cleanup is similar to cleaning a contaminated swimming pool,” she said. “In a flow-through splashpad, you always know the water supply is clean.”

The cost of building a splash pad

The District in Henderson spent $95,000 to build its splash pad. Splash Zone, a private splash pad construction company, charges $70 to $90 per square foot, meaning a basic splash pad might cost $40,000, while a large, high-end one could run $500,000 or more. Several companies also sell splash pad kits online for homeowners to install in their backyards. The kits cost $1,500 to $4,000 or more and include jets, valves, drains and a control box but not piping runs or surfacing materials.

Splash pads aren’t just for kids

A splash pad at the Ontario Science Centre features a hydraulophone, a flute-like musical instrument that uses water jets to produce sound. People can change its tones by interfering with the water flow. An “urban beach” in Dundas Square in downtown Toronto’s business district regularly attracts joggers who want to cool off, while Krasnodar, Russia, features Europe’s largest splash fountain, with streams several stories tall.

Gallons of fun

Henderson splash pads used 32.2 million gallons of water in 2013, enough to fill close to 48 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Officials hope to reduce splash pad water use by 20 to 30 percent this year. Parks workers already have put conservation measures in place, such as preventing ground effects from splashing higher than six feet and limiting to four the number of fixtures that can be on at a time. Those changes saved 1.5 million gallons of water in one month, said Vince Marker, Henderson’s aquatic facility maintenance coordinator.