Western Americans cope with life running dry

The water police are out in force
Water cops here and in cities such as Albuquerque, N.M., Denver and Tucson, Ariz., enforce the rules. Deviate from the schedule or allow water to run down the street and you may find yourself with a ticket.

And in many cases, it’s neighbors tattling on other neighbors.

In Las Vegas, N.M., Trujillo has gotten calls from homeowners in the middle of the night who report: “Mr. Trujillo if you come out here now, you’ll catch them.”

School baseball and football fields across the West have been converting to fake turf, golf courses are ripping out grass, and many cities offer rebates for low-flow toilets and water-efficient washing machines. Many restaurants do not serve customers water unless they ask.

“I visit my mom, who lives in Philadelphia. She’s making dinner and she has the water running. People in Albuquerque really see that as a terrible thing,” said Katherine Yuhas, water conservation officer for the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility.

Bathtub rings around Lake Mead
Water pressure can be low, something people from other parts of the country notice right away. (Ozzy Osbourne once complained to his wife on their MTV show “The Osbournes” about the low water pressure in the shower until she told him about the water-saving shower heads in California.)

Boaters and swimmers have grown accustomed to the bathtub rings around Lake Mead in Nevada and Arizona and Lake Powell in Arizona and Utah that show where the water used to be, before drought brought the levels down. Similarly, tourists at Hoover Dam outside Las Vegas gawk and take pictures of the prominent white water line.

Sunset Hills Memorial Park owner Chet Hill has persuaded other cemeteries to try artificial turf, too.

The only problem? “Sometimes it looks too good, too perfect,” Hill said. “We actually put little lumps in it, throw some dirt underneath it.”

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