Henderson Mayor Michelle Romero delivers her first State of the City address at the Green Valley Ranch Resort and Spa Thursday Oct. 19, 2023.
Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023 | 5:42 p.m.
Henderson Mayor Michelle Romero unveiled the city’s newest effort to promote water conservation through an initiative city leaders are calling, “H2One.”
“H2One is Henderson’s call to conserve and sustain our water supply because it sustains us,” said Romero, in her first State of the City address since be installed as mayor in January. “It’s all hands-on-deck; we’re calling all community members to action and empowering you to become conservation champions.”
Romero was welcomed to the podium at Green Valley Ranch Resort with a standing ovation, smiling with excitement for what she called the “Henderson Harvest.”
“Harvest is a time to gather together, to rest and feast and congratulate each other as we look back on a fruitful year and all that has been accomplished,” Romero opened with.
Perhaps the most significant subject Romero spoke about was the city’s water conservation efforts.
With more businesses and housing cropping up in Henderson comes a need for m water in an area that has its own anxieties about the future of nearby Lake Mead and the drought-stricken Colorado River that feeds it.
That’s where Henderson’s H2One campaign and Climate Response Initiative comes in, Romero said.
“We need growth to be able to sustain ourselves, and with everything, we have to do it smartly,” Romero said about water conservation in an interview with the Sun. “I think a lot of people just aren’t aware in general how the internal use of water is recycled, but external use is where we lose the majority of our water … and this will help them understand that.”
The H2One campaign will consist of various efforts to encourage outdoor water conservation specifically.
It encourages individuals to do their part by complying with the regional water schedule, reporting water waste to the city and taking advantage of rebates to remove useless grass and install water-smart landscaping.
Some of these rebates include the Water Smart Landscapes Rebate, Tree Enhancement Program, Smart Leak Detector Rebate and Smart Irrigation Controller Rebate among others.
The city will also be putting in work on their end, Romero said. Henderson will be working with the Southern Nevada Water Authority to “support their efforts” by removing turf – from areas not used for recreation – in 52 locations by December 2026.
They will also be adding water-smart desert landscaping to Boulder Highway as part of the Reimagine Boulder Highway project, which Romero said will save 46 million gallons of water annually.
Satellites will come into play with helping Henderson conserve outdoor water usage as well. Romero explained that the city is using satellite imagery to identify sub-surface leaks and already identified 71 in their initial test of the new technology.
Addressing these leaks — typically occurring in underground pipelines or water mains — saved Henderson 160 million gallons per year, Romero noted.
“With this program – and with everything that we’re doing, as we said – anything that’s used internally into a building is recycled and reused, so it’s not the growth itself, it’s what happens outside those buildings,” Romero told the Sun. “So, there’s a whole bunch of things that we are doing to make sure that our ordinances back up what we’re saying as well.”
Henderson already boasts “successful water conservation outreach,” Romero said, which she attributed to why the city was able to reduce their water usage by more than one billion gallons of water in 2022 compared to 2021.
The city is in talks with local golf courses to see how they can “find solutions that will further reduce golf course and water use.”
Nonfunctional turf has also been a target of the city, Romero said. Over the past year, more than two million square feet of nonfunctional turf has been removed, and the city’s Parks and Recreation team removed over 140,000 square feet from five city parks.
Those efforts amounted to $300,000 in rebates from the authority, and water savings of almost 120 million gallons a year, said Romero.
With an influx of new companies moving to the region, and as one of the U.S.’s fastest growing cities, addressing housing and water security will be its biggest priority.
Haas Automation — which designs and manufactures machine tools — will establish a 2.3 million square foot manufacturing and headquarters plant in Henderson, with construction expected to begin in 2024, Romero said.
Even beyond that, new housing developments like the Four Seasons Private Residences and Henderson West, a 102-acre development with medium and high-density housing will encourage more residents to move in.
From the city’s high quality of life and safety ratings to the Reimagine Boulder Highway Project and new developments at the old Fiesta Henderson, Romero said the city has “much to celebrate.”
She also explained the city’s five new strategic priorities: community safety, quality education, economic vitality, high-performing public service and a healthy, livable and sustainable city.
“As residents of an arid region, we’re under no illusion about how essential water is to a healthy city,” Romero said. “While we all share the benefits this limited resource brings, we also share the responsibility to conserve it.”
