By Vernon Robison

Moapa Valley Progress

The Moapa Valley Water District (MVWD) is cracking down hard on water theft from its system. In recent months, officials have become aware of ongoing problems where local residents hook in to MVWD hydrants to fill water tanks and trucks for dust control use in local arenas. And so, in a meeting held last week, the MVWD Board passed stiff penalties and fines to be placed upon anyone found stealing water from the MVWD system.

“We had been noticing a rash of water theft,” said MVWD Distribution Superintendent Joe Davis. “It has been hard to detect because it usually occurs in the evening hours.”

Davis said that he had suspected theft at a specific hydrant in town. Last month he went out on his own time in the evening to watch the hydrant from a discreet location and caught someone stealing water. He called Metro officers to the scene at that time.

To make matters worse, these types of theft also pose a contamination hazard to the whole system, Davis said.

“The tank that the guy was u sing to haul the water was a steel tank on top of a truck,” Davis said. “It didnt’ have a cross connection control with an air vac to prevent cross-contamination to the system.”

As a result, Davis had to call two other MVWD employees down to work with him and take water samples to ensure no cross-contamination had taken place.

“Fortunately the results all came back clear,” Davis said. “But the gentleman received a bill for a little over $800 for the theft and all the other related expenses. If the test had shown contamination then he would have been running into a whole lot more money to flush the whole system.”

Davis felt that the recent rash of water theft arises from two factors.

The first was the restrictions in the district’s previous hydrant meter policies. During the growth boom a few years ago, the district restricted hydrant meters to construction projects only.

Last month, though, in response to Davis’ request, the MVWD board passed a policy allowing residents to apply for a hydrant meter. The cost for the meter is $1 per day plus roughly $2.50 per 1000 gallons used. Applicants are also required to pay a $30 application fee. This policy has been in effect for about a month now and is expected to relieve some of the water theft problem, Davis said.

The other problem Davis saw was that the district fines for water theft were set too low. Currently the fine is set at $300 for a first offense.

“I’ve heard from different sources that a lot of people just don’t care if they are caught because it is only at $300 fine,” Davis said. “Of course they might actually be liable for a lot more than that. But there is apparently this idea that if that’s all I have to pay, it’s okay because I’ll probably use more water than that.”

Davis recommended that the board consider raising the first time offense to $500.

Board member Scott Carson wondered why the fine shouldn’t be raised even more than that.

“I think I want it to be more,” Carson said. “I’d like it to be $1000 for the first offense. If they are laughing at $300 then we must be talking about a boatload of water here. I want this to be a very strong deterrent.”

Board Chairman Ken Staton wanted to ensure that, if the fine was raised, that all other expenses involved with such theft would remain in place. These included paying all costs incurred by the district, paying for any damage to property, paying all legal fees and the possibility of having the case turned over to the District Attorney for criminal action.

Carson made the motion to raise the fine to $1000 on first offense; $2000 for second offense; $4000 for third offense and $6000 for fourth offense. All other existing consequences would still apply. The motion was passed with a unanimous vote.