Answer may have been found to solve water fight

Monday, April 7, 2003 | 8:56 a.m.

Interior Department Assistant Secretary Bennett Raley announced Friday that his agency has found a legal strategy that could move California a step closer to completing a sweeping agreement governing water use.

The agreement, called the Quantification Settlement Agreement, is needed before the Interior Department will release the so-called interim surplus, water unused by the states of the Upper Colorado River Basin and consumed by Nevada and California.

Raley said one hurdle to the agreement was a federal restriction on use of the Colorado River to rescue the endangered Salton Sea, a stopping point on the migration routes of millions of birds. He said federal authorities believe that an exchange of river water for Southern California groundwater will allow river water to go into the Salton Sea.

The salvation of the Salton Sea has been a critical yet thorny issue that sank last year's settlement.

"We allow both state and federal requirements to be met through the principal of the exchange," Raley said. "I'm somewhat more hopeful today than at any time since Jan. 1," when time to sign the settlement agreement expired and Interior Secretary Gale Norton cut the interim surplus.

The surplus would be used by the Southern Nevada Water Authority to provide a cushion against anticipated future demand, especially in the face of the current drought that has lasted three years.

The surplus, before the cut, would have provided enough water for about 150,000 people in Southern Nevada.

Southern California took a bigger hit, losing enough water for perhaps 4 million people.

The agreement still faces some major hurdles. The California Legislature is scheduled to meet later this month to consider providing upwards of $200 million to keep the water deal alive.

Interior also still has more questions about the proposed agreement, which came out last month, Raley said. He said the answers to those questions, however, may still be buried in the 52 separate documents that comprise the overall proposal.

"The other issues, we assume, are resolvable," he said.

Southern Nevada Water Authority General Manager Pat Mulroy cautioned that Interior's latest suggestion has to be approved by at least four California water agencies before it can be incorporated into the Quantification Settlement Agreement.

"The key here is to find out whether it works for California," Mulroy said. "We're encouraged by anything that moves the quantification agreement forward."

Adan Ortega, spokesman for Southern California's Metropolitan Water District, said attorneys with his agency are studying Interior's suggestion. His agency is the biggest impacted by the settlement agreement and the loss of the interim surplus.

"For the first time, it lets the parties look at what the light looks like at the end of the tunnel," Ortega said. "We're optimistic, but it's tempered by everything else that must take place."