Protection sought for river delta

Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2000 | 10:07 a.m.

An environmentalist testified Tuesday that Colorado River water not needed in Las Vegas, Phoenix or Los Angeles should be allowed to flow across the Mexican border to restore wetlands in the Colorado River Delta.

At a public hearing in Las Vegas on a new plan to share Colorado River water, David Orr of the Glen Canyon Action Network of Utah said a temporary federal plan to share river surpluses among Nevada, California and Arizona does not measure environmental impacts from urban sprawl along the Colorado.

"The Colorado River is the whole basis for the growth of Southwestern cities," Orr said, adding that his group will analyze those impacts on the river before submitting written comments by Sept. 8.

Orr's organization supports restoring the Colorado River Delta south of the Mexican border. Before 1995 that stretch of parched riverbed often went dry and marshes disappeared.

Since 1995 a surplus has been available on the river every year, allowing the Colorado's flows to reach that precious habitat, Orr said.

The proposed surplus guidelines will help future Interior secretaries to divide the river's spoils more fairly, Lower Basin Regional Director Robert Johnson said, allowing Nevada and Arizona to store extra water underground like a savings account in a bank while forcing California to live on 4.4 million acre-feet a year.