Deal bolsters valley water

Lake Mead is formed by Hoover Dam blocking the Colorado River

By Michael Weissenstein

July 26, 2000 Web posted at: 2:23 PM EDT (1823 GMT)

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (Las Vegas Review Journal) -- Nevada and six Western states have struck a historic deal to wean California from its overdependence on the Colorado River and set aside decades of interstate acrimony over the region's most coveted resource.

California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico plan to deliver to federal officials on Thursday in Washington, D.C., a plan to force extensive water conservation in California and delay by 15 years the date when Las Vegas is expected to exhaust its water supplies.

"For Nevada, it's incredibly important," said Pat Mulroy, general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority. "It gives Nevada an assured water supply for a long period of time."

The plan gives California a 15-year deadline for conserving water by lining porous irrigation canals with concrete and transferring agricultural water to cities such as San Diego. California has been consuming water unused by Arizona and Nevada, a supply that is increasingly unsure as the two upstream states increase in population and use more of their supplies.

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California negotiators insist that the state must have a guaranteed water supply as it slowly lowers its demand to its legally allocated 4.4 million acre-feet. An acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons or enough to serve a family of four or five for a year. Nevada has an annual allocation of 300,000 acre-feet.

The plan ensures California's supply by allowing increased access to the water stored in Lake Mead during the 15-year period established by the seven states. Nevada also would be allowed to tap more lake water.

The proposal would allow Lake Mead to drop by as much as 75 feet in a sustained drought, with the shoreline receding by more than 400 feet in some areas. That could force lake officials to move some boat ramps and restrooms. But only about 12 additional feet of shoreline would be exposed if normal weather conditions persist as expected, said David Donnelly, the water authority's deputy general manager.

The draft plan remains subject to environmental review and revisions by Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, who holds sole discretion over the river in its lower basin containing Arizona, California and Nevada. Some state officials said they expect the secretary to accept the plan without major changes.

"We're very happy with the document that the seven states have agreed on, and we're optimistic that the Department of Interior will adopt the states' position," said Larry Anderson, director of Utah's Division of Water Resources.

The plan contains a clause prohibiting any significant drop in Lake Powell, the river's other major reservoir, which straddles Arizona and Utah and generates millions of recreation dollars for surrounding communities.

Drawing down Lake Mead in dry times would give California an assured supply. It also would move from 2007 to 2022 the date when Las Vegas is expected to be using all the river water to which it's entitled. Water conservation and schemes to inject river water into underground "water banks" in Southern Nevada and Arizona would push the date out to 2050.

"Between our conservation and banking, we'll be able to stabilize Southern Nevada's water supply," Mulroy said.

Environmental groups have pushed for the plan to provide additional water for Mexico's ailing Colorado River Delta, a once lush expanse of wetlands that shrank from 1.9 million to about 150,00 acres as river water went to users on both sides of the border. A 1999 Environmental Defense Fund study recommended that it would take about 100,000 acre-feet of water a year to maintain the remnants of the delta ecosystem.

The plan contains no such provisions, but Deputy Interior Secretary David Hayes, who will meet with the states Thursday, said the plan does not preclude future aid for the for the delta.

"Those are serious issues that need to be dealt with on a bilateral basis," he said. "These guidelines were not designed to address the delta issues."

The interstate deal comes as changes in Sunbelt population growth shift the politics of the river, which serves about 25 million people throughout the West.

California has for decades watered its farm fields and suburban lawns with more water than allowed by the complex set of court decisions and interstate compacts governing use of the river. That excess supply has come from water unused by Nevada and Arizona upstream. Southern California's farmers use more than 3.8 million acre-feet of the approximately 5.2 million acre-feet that the state annually consumes.

As Las Vegas, Phoenix and other population centers have used increasing proportions of Nevada's and Arizona's legal allocations of river water, California has come under increasing pressure to cut back.

The deal to be presented to Hayes on Thursday would guarantee California the right to use water stored in Lake Mead in the years leading up to an expected deadline of 2016. Nevada also would be allowed to tap the reservoir and use the water.

California outraged Utah and Nevada last year when it proposed drawing down Lake Mead by 112 feet, a drop that could have caused the shore to recede by as much as 2 miles in some areas. California negotiators backed away from the stance in subsequent talks, and the current plan more closely reflects a less drastic proposal by the six upstream states.

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