MVWD celebrates Drinking Water Week 2025
This week the Moapa Valley Water District (MVWD), as well as many other culinary water utilities across the country, are celebrating Drinking Water Week. This nation-wide event provides an opportunity for communities to reflect on the vital role that water plays in daily lives – especially here in the desert southwest.
“We have celebrated Water Week each year at this time for quite a while now,” said MVWD General Manager Joe Davis. “We have tried to draw people into our office with prize drawings and other things during this important week. But this year, we decided to take more of an educational approach. We are taking the message about water’s importance to local kids.”
MVWD staff members will be visiting local elementary schools this week, giving presentations in classrooms that educate kids about our local water sources, the quality of that water and the complex system that delivers water to their homes.
“High quality drinking water is not only essential for public health but also for overall community well-being and economic growth,” Davis added. “Safe water supports businesses and institutions, strengthens schools and healthcare systems, and enhances the quality of life in our communities. We see it as absolutely essential for a community to continue to exist and thrive.”
MVWD employs a multi-faceted approach to ensuring a high-quality water supply for the Moapa Valley communities. Some of these include the following:
Source water protection: MVWD management has been actively engaged in the decision-making for the Warm Springs area, which is the source of culinary water for the Moapa Valley. The district has joined in various agreements with regional partners to preserve this sensitive area which has been the local water source for local residents for hundreds of years.
District staff also encourages area residents to help identify any unused or abandoned wells in the community which can be properly decommissioned. This prevents harmful substances from flowing into the uncapped wells and contaminating the groundwater. For more information about this call the district at 702-397-6893.
Advanced treatment processes: The water which is sourced from MVWD production facilities is already remarkably clean and pristine; just as it comes from the ground. However, the district operates treatment facilities that bring that water up to even higher standards required by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
“We spare no expense to make sure that the water coming to your tap is safe and clean; and that it meets all regulatory requirements,” Davis said.
Rigorous water quality monitoring: District crews draw water samples from the MVWD system every two weeks and perform rigorous lab testing on it to monitor ongoing water quality.
Transparency and public communication: Each year, MVWD releases the results of its water quality testing. This is a detailed and technical report which is open to anyone for careful review. It is released to the public each year in July.
“We don’t bury our water quality results in an annual report somewhere that the public can’t easily find it,” Davis said. “Rather we publish its entirety in the local newspaper so that it can be reviewed by our customers and ratepayers. We want the community to know the truth about our water quality; and have an easy time finding it.”
This emphasis on protecting public health, and educating people about where their water comes from, is exactly what Drinking Water Week is all about, explains David LaFrance, CEO of the American Water Works Association (AWWA), the organization behind Water Week.
“Highly skilled, dedicated water professionals are committed to ensuring communities have the high-quality water they need for a healthy, thriving future,” LaFrance added.