New California water deal could help Las Vegas’ future

Thursday, Oct. 17, 2002 | 9:55 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

LA QUINTA, Calif. -- Southern California water agencies reached a historic billion-dollar settlement Wednesday that shifts water from desert farmers to urban San Diego and is a key step in weaning California from its overreliance on the Colorado River.

The deal could rescue Las Vegas from a feared loss of billions of gallons in water pulled annually from Lake Mead, about 10 percent of the total water used in the Las Vegas Valley.

California has been under an end-of-the-year deadline to create a plan showing how it will cut its use of river water by 2016. If it failed, it risked having its allotment severely cut by the federal government.

Federal river law bundled Nevada's use of "surplus" water with California's, although the Southern Nevada Water Authority had been trying to separate the states' water rights.

The agreement reached Wednesday resolved the biggest obstacle to developing California's use-reduction plan. It still must be agreed to by four Southern California water agencies.

"This is a measure that will last 75 years. It's not a quick fix. It's not a short-term deal. It's for the long-term," said California state Assemblyman Robert Hertzberg, who helped lead the negotiations between water districts representing San Diego, Imperial Valley farmers, Los Angeles and the valley surrounding Palm Springs.

Southern Nevada Water Authority officials welcomed the development.

"We think it's a major step forward for unification of issues along the Colorado River basin," water authority spokesman Vince Alberta said. "It's a very positive sign, a positive sign for California, for Southern Nevada and for every community that relies on this river."

The agreement, if approved, guarantees that Southern Nevada will for at least now be permitted to take water above the minimum allotment, Alberta said.

Water agencies throughout the Lower Colorado River Basin are nervously eyeing the effects of drought in the West, which could lead to water-use cuts, but probably not before the end of next year.

Since the 1930s, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming and California have had an agreement on how much Colorado River water each state receives. California has used more than its share for years, but until recently its overdraft didn't matter because the other states didn't use their entire allotments -- the source of the surplus.

But three years of record drought on the Colorado River and rapid growth throughout the West have made water an ever more precious commodity.

In 1996, former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbit warned California it could no longer rely on receiving more than its annual allocation, primarily because of growing demand in Nevada and Arizona.