Worries trickle into water supply

Friday, Feb. 23, 2001 | 11:57 a.m.

As state officials brace for an energy crisis, Southern Nevada representatives warned that a regional power shortage could affect drinking-water delivery to Las Vegas as soon as this summer.

Nevada is caught in a national power crisis, experts said Thursday during a workshop sponsored by the Southern Nevada Water Authority and the Colorado River Commission. California's crisis is only an early warning to Western states, they said.

Not only is California short on electricity, but a drought in the West has dried up hydropower in the Pacific Northwest, which last year sold surpluses to Western states to fill the gaps.

The water authority is the state's biggest power user, drawing electricity to pump water a half-mile or more uphill from Lake Mead to residents and resorts in the Las Vegas Valley. A shortage of power or skyrocketing electricity rates in the next year would directly affect local water supplies.

"It's a delicate balance," said Pat Mulroy, Southern Nevada Water Authority general manager, who called for a new customer-driven utility. The water authority has volunteered to form a partnership with such a utility, she said.

Mulroy praised Gov. Kenny Guinn's request to the Public Utilities Commission on Thursday to stop Nevada's plunge into power deregulation.

So far neither the state nor any local government agency is willing to take charge of supplying power.

"The regulated system has failed, and as California proved, the deregulated system has failed," Mulroy said. "We need something in between."

Among the reasons for power supply problems: Nevada utility officials failed to set long-term electricity contracts because deregulation called for selling off existing power plants, no new plants have been built in the West in 20 years, and utilities are unwilling to charge the real cost of delivering electricity to customers.

Nevada Power Co. has enough electricity to supply the Las Vegas Valley this summer, but instead of buying half the supply from the market next year, the utility will need to buy 85 percent during peak demands from the grid. That means higher prices for everybody, including the water authority.

While the water authority plans to spend $42 million for the three summer months to pump water to Las Vegas this summer, next year the power bill is expected to balloon to roughly $50 million even if electricity is available.

"If we don't have power, we cannot run our delivery system," water authority Deputy General Manager David Donnelly said.

Power prices and production are not the only threats to Southern Nevada's future, said George Caan, executive director of the Colorado River Commission, the liaison agency between the states and the federal government for supplying water and power from the river.

Last week California declared an emergency that demanded Glen Canyon Dam, straddling the border of Arizona and Utah on the Colorado River, produce more power, Caan said.

Nevada and Arizona objected because that would require drawing more water from the Colorado River. They immediately demanded that unless California can prove it is desperate for power, the federal government should not use the dam for supplying electricity to a single state, he said.

If California can command raising or lowering the river to suit its needs, Mulroy said, Southern Nevada may not get a share of surplus Colorado flows under new rules that became effective last month. In the long run that could interrupt the Las Vegas Valley's growth.

"It is an untenable situation," Mulroy said.

To help pay its power bills and protect water customers, the water authority is willing to form partnerships with energy companies, she said.

The water authority is committed to supplying ground water to any of four power plants proposed for Apex, 15 miles northeast of Las Vegas, Mulroy said. But the state engineer must decide whether there is enough water available, she said.

Reliant Energy of Houston is prepared to begin building its plant at Apex by the end of this year, utility representative David Greeson said. To supply 300 acre-feet to a natural gas-fired power plant, adding 530 megawatts to the mix, Reliant plans to use existing water at Republic of Southern Nevada's landfill, he said.

Reliant could be up and running by summer 2003, Greeson said.

So far six companies are vying to build power plants in Southern Nevada along Interstate 15. None has committed power to the Las Vegas market.