Drought drives Las Vegas to cap size of home swimming pools

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Limiting the size of swimming pools in and around Las Vegas might offer just a drop in the proverbial bucket of water savings amid historic drought and climate change in the U.S. Southwest. Elected officials voted this week to do it anyway -- ignoring pool builders’ complaints that the move only amounts to optics. The builders said restricting new pool sizes is not going to have an impact on Lake Mead.

After Sept. 1, new home swimming pools can only be about the size of a three-car garage, or 600 square feet. The average pool size in the Las Vegas Valley is about 470 square feet. Officials cite worries about dwindling water supplies from the drying-up Lake Mead reservoir on the depleted Colorado River. Officials say the region home to 2.4 million people has almost 200,000 home swimming pools.

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