City and county officials from Southern and Northern Nevada acknowledged more work needs to be done to expand access to public drinking water and offer cooling centers beyond normal business hours.

Reno and Las Vegas are the two fastest warming cities in the nation according to Climate Central, a nonprofit that analyzes climate science and has studied temperatures of cities across the country over the past 50 years. Heat-related deaths have spiked in both Northern and Southern Nevada in recent years.

In response, state lawmakers during the 2025 Legislative Session mandated the two most populous counties adopt heat mitigation strategies.

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Cities and counties in Southern and Northern Nevada updated lawmakers on the Interim Committee on Government Affairs about those efforts.

Jurisdictions highlighted strides around expanding shade canopy structures and offering free tree give-aways to dampen the effect of extreme heat.

But they acknowledged they still lack any strategy to expand access to public drinking water.

Clark County officials, who appeared before the committee in April, told lawmakers they were working on expanding “policies related to cooling spaces and public access to drinking water” and hoped to have the process completed by this summer.

Marco Velota, planning project manager and chief sustainability officer for the City of Las Vegas, said the city was conducting “an inventory of our facilities where we can dispense or where we can provide drinking water.”

Neither the county nor the city provided the Nevada Current with additional details on plans around public drinking water at the time of publication.

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Kat Oakley, a planning manager with Washoe County who appeared before lawmakers earlier this month, said part of the challenge for expanding access to cooling stations and public water was to access the differing needs of residents in more urban areas versus rural areas of the county.

The county, she said, is still collaborating with the cities of Reno and Sparks to find a solution.

Southern Nevada governments already rely heavily on cooling centers during the summer months. After degrees spiked to more than 100 degrees in March, officials have already had to activate cooling centers this year.

One consideration, Assemblymember Duy Nguyen (D-Las Vegas) offered, is to address the hours people can access a cool space from the heat.

“You know, and I know, that heat doesn’t have business hours, right?” he said, adding the triple-degree weather doesn’t “come out at 8 a.m. and they close at 5 p.m.”

“The day goes longer in the summertime,” he added. “Obviously, closing a cooling center at 5 would be defeating the purpose.”

Expanding tree canopy

All the jurisdictions boasted efforts to expand tree canopy and offer tree giveaways to increase the number of shade spaces within cities as part of their heat mitigation plans.

Clark County has participated in an ongoing community canopy project to plant more trees to mitigate the urban heat island effect, according to Todd Mason, the county’s government affairs manager.

It began conducting another tree giveaway this spring with the goal of handing out “6,800 trees to residents in Clark County,” and focusing on “12 specific ZIP codes, which were identified through the Desert Research Institute’s heat mapping project that were most vulnerable.”

Lawmakers questioned the locations of trees and what was being done to ensure neighborhoods that comprise disadvantaged populations – areas typically with more apartment complexes and affordable housing – also have access to the program to ensure shade equity among the most vulnerable.

Tree giveaway was geared “first and foremost” toward homeowners, Mason said, adding that it didn’t preclude apartments from also partaking.

State Senator Dina Neal (D- North Las Vegas) requested data to show the impact of the community canopy project, in particular if trees previously planted in previous giveaways were still alive. Mason wasn’t able to provide specific data during the presentation.

North Las Vegas had previously reached 3% canopy coverage in 2022. Officials told lawmakers in April it decreased 2.2% because trees weren’t surviving.

City officials realized they were focused on planting heat-tolerant trees, which can survive intense heat, but rather should invest in drought-tolerant trees, which can endure long stretches without water.

“We started to see what a few years ago trees were dying throughout the valley, and we said some those aren’t, those are not working,” said Eddie Rodriguez, the municipal forester for the City of North Las Vegas.

Assemblymember Tanya Flanagan (D-Las Vegas) asked North Las Vegas officials if efforts to expand tree canopies were negated by the presence of large warehouse spaces.

“These big, huge white warehouses that are mostly empty are just reflecting heat and next to people’s homes,” she said. “How do you plan for a better future if you don’t think about it when you’re planning?”

Doug Guild, the director of parks and recreations for the City of North Las Vegas, agreed the warehouse space adds to the heat island effect and said the goal for the city was to work with the land development team to figure out a solution.

“So if the Legislature put in statute that it is mandated that any planning that goes through a master plan must have a heat mitigation plan related to a commercial developer being approved, would you guys object?” Neal asked officials.

Guild declined to say, adding he didn’t want to “commit publicly on that right now.”