Dry outlook: Colorado expert warns of water woes

Friday, Nov. 8, 2002 | 11:03 a.m.

Awater expert visiting Las Vegas from the high and dry city of Denver brought with him a vision of what well could be our region's water future.

The scenario in Denver and likely coming for Southern Nevada includes: Tight water use restrictions, escalating charges for waste or excessive use, and ultimately an economic bite on both businesses and residents.

Chips Barry, manager of Denver Water, the Colorado city's municipal water service, said a three-year drought in the West has hit his area much harder than it has hit Las Vegas.

The biggest reservoirs in the Denver area have about 1 percent of the storage capacity of Lake Mead, our principal source of water. That means droughts hit central Colorado much faster than Southern Nevada. While Lake Mead is above 60 percent of its total capacity, Barry said reservoirs in Colorado are less than half full and dropping.

But our day is coming, Barry warned. Rain and snow amounts in the Rocky Mountains have been below normal for so long that it has affected storage along the length of the Colorado River, which feeds Lake Mead.

"A drought is measured by two things: duration and severity," he said. The duration of the current drought so far matches a three-year period in the 1950s, and "nobody knows how long this one will last."

In terms of severity, this drought is "50 percent worse than the worst on record."

It is not a 100-year drought, Barry said, but instead beginning to look like a drought that climatologists would expect only every 300 years.

Next year, the first real bite could occur for Las Vegas area water users. U.S. Bureau of Reclamation projections show Lake Mead dropping below 1,145 feet above sea level next spring -- a drop that would trigger a federally mandated reduction in the amount of water Southern Nevada, California and Arizona can take from the lake.

The loss could equal more than 12,000 acre-feet of water over the course of a year for Southern Nevada alone -- enough water for about 60,000 people.

The Southern Nevada Water Authority is one agency that has been eyeing the lake level, water consumption and the weather anxiously.

If the drought continues through next summer, lake levels could drop below 1,125 feet. Under the federal river rules, more severe cuts would come into play -- water for more than 100,000 people in Southern Nevada would be lost.

Under the threat, the water authority staff members are drafting a drought plan that will likely include most -- if not all -- of the measures in place in Denver now.

The drought plan, according to water authority spokeswoman Amy Kremenek, should be in front of the public in January. It will take the cooperation, endorsement and support of political boards throughout Southern Nevada to make the plan work, she said.

One potentially thorny issue that must be addressed is higher prices for at least some water users. Barry said similar measures were tough to get passed in Denver, but the need overcame opposition.

In Denver, people using minimal amounts of water pay a low flat rate, as they do in Southern Nevada. But those using larger amounts must cut back to 70 percent of last year's total or face a surcharge starting at 25 cents per 1,000 gallons.

The surcharges for a typical family home begin at about 42,000 gallons a year. In comparison, a typical Las Vegas family can use 400,000 gallons a year. At that level, families in Denver would pay hundreds of dollars a year in added water charges.

Bill Martin, president of Nevada State Bank and chairman of the local Water Conservation Coalition, met with Barry at the water authority offices Thursday. He said the measures in place in Denver could be needed in Southern Nevada, particularly because water conservation has actually lost ground in recent years.

"People don't understand the need for conservation unless there is a crisis," Martin said.

But while water authority staff believe there is a crisis, the public still enjoys relatively low water costs of about $20 to $30 per month. That is one reason why waste from lawn watering is still, according to authority staff, the primary avenue for waste.

The water authority is working to achieve a community-wide water conservation goal of 25 percent by 2010. The goal this year was for residents to cut 20 percent of water use, but instead it actually fell to 13.5 percent conservation from 16 percent last year.

Martin said the overall conservation goal is important, but conservation during this period of drought is critically important.

"If the water is not there in the lake, it's not there for us to use," he said. "This is the growing cause for concern."

Barry, in town for a meeting of the Western Urban Water Coalition, said all cities in the West have been hit by the drought. The coalition works cooperatively on political issues affecting urban water use.

Barry acknowledged that some of the measures employed in the Denver area, where some suburbs have already had home service interruptions, are not likely to come into effect soon in the Las Vegas area.