State eyes future bids for surplus from river

Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2000 | 11:09 a.m.

Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt is expected to announce a plan that will give Nevada a chance to bid for surplus Colorado River water.

The plan reflects a compromise reached last summer among California water users that will force the state in 15 years to use only its allotted share. In the interim, California's needs will be met by drawing down Lake Mead, as much as 19 feet.

For decades California water users have depended on surplus river water to meet their basic needs, and Nevada and Arizona have not had access to a drop above their allotted share. Only in the past couple of years, because of growth, have the smaller states needed more than their allotment.

The compromise combines conservation, shifting water use from farms and ranches to cities, and a fairer division of Colorado River surpluses among the lower basin states -- California, Arizona and Nevada.

Babbitt on Thursday is giving his final speech as Interior secretary to Western water users at the Colorado River Water Users Association meeting here. The group meets through Friday.

The Interior Department expects to publish the plan in the Federal Register on Friday, and Babbitt's signature is expected to make the rule effective Jan. 17, three days before the new administration takes office.

California has consistently drawn more water from the Colorado River than the other six states along the river: Nevada, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming.

Under previous rules, all of the river's surplus went to California automatically. Now the Interior Department will decide annually who gets the extra water, based on the size of the surplus and the needs of the states.

Last year California took 800,000 acre feet of water above its official entitlement of 4.4 million acre feet. That extra water served between 3.2 million and 4 million Californians. By comparison, Nevada gets 300,000 acre feet of the river a year.

Southern California has already trimmed its use per person from 210 gallons a day to 183 gallons in the past 10 years.

What Babbitt's plan does is level the access to river water among the rapidly growing southwestern states, Bureau of Reclamation spokesman Bob Walsh said. "It puts Nevada on a level playing field," he said from his Boulder City office. The bureau is responsible for operating the river.

Southern Nevada Water Authority General Manager Pat Mulroy said the progress Babbitt has made on balancing the needs of high-growth states such as Nevada and Arizona with the rest of the users who have never demanded a full share of the river has been a milestone in the 78-year history of Colorado River laws.

The plan also allows Nevada to store any water it doesn't use underground in Arizona, like putting the river's surplus in a savings account for future dry years, Mulroy said.

It addresses environmental concerns on the Colorado's dried up delta at the U.S.-Mexican border, as well, she said.

"These combined efforts are historically significant," Mulroy said.

The struggle to balance water use among the Western states has not been easy, Mulroy noted.

All seven Colorado River states must agree to any change in how the river flows are managed, for the Colorado offers drinking supplies as well as hydropower.

Many times during negotiations, an agreement would evaporate when one or the other states balked at a demand by California water officials.

To overcome such reluctance, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has agreed to reduce its use of the Colorado during years of drought and aid both Arizona and Nevada in an effort to clean up pollution in Lake Mead.

This approach allows California to gradually reduce its river share and live within federal limits over 15 years, Metropolitan Water District specialist Dennis Underwood said.