Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

California nears deal on water use

IMPERIAL VALLEY, Calif. -- Officials from two California water agencies said Thursday that they are on the cusp of an agreement that could open the door for added water flow both for their needs and for Las Vegas.

Maureen Stapleton, general manager of the San Diego County Water Authority, joined two board members from the Imperial Irrigation District in California in describing weeks of negotiations on a broad water agreement as almost entirely successful. The officials declined to discuss details of the agreement, citing a gag order from California Gov. Gray Davis.

The San Diego and Imperial Valley water agencies were two key players in the "quantification settlement agreement" that would have set long-term benchmarks for current and future water use -- and reductions in use -- for California from the Colorado River.

The agreement fell apart in December when the farmers of the Imperial Valley balked at requirements in the deal that would have required them to essentially stop farming thousands of acres, part of a plan to both save the struggling Salton Sea and still transfer huge volumes of water to urban San Diego.

The U.S. Interior Department soundly rejected a counterproposal from the irrigation district that would have allowed the farmers to back out of a deal in future years. When the deal fell apart, Interior Secretary Gayle Norton, citing preexisting agreements among all seven states along the Colorado River, cut off so called "surplus" water for the two states that used it -- California and Nevada.

The loss equals 30,000 to 40,000 acre-feet of water for Southern Nevada, enough water for more than 150,000 people. The loss also accelerated plans already moving forward to deal with the river's worst drought in modern history. The proposed plans call for Las Vegas-area consumers to restrict uses, especially for turf and other outdoor needs.

"We have worked out, we think, a compromise that would allow us to move that water," Imperial Irrigation District board member Andy Horne told a meeting here of Las Vegas-area water officials. "We've made a lot of progress over the past six weeks ... really over the past three weeks.

"Huge progress has been made," Stapleton agreed. "We have an agreement that resolves many of the issues" -- including the "off ramps," or exit opportunities for the Imperial Valley, that Interior officials said were unacceptable.

But if the agreement is finalized -- some officials are quietly predicting it could be within one or two weeks -- one obstacle will remain before Las Vegas is assured of renewed access to the surplus water, which is unused apportionment from Upper Colorado River Basin states. The Interior Department would have to OK the flow of the surplus to California, which lost about 10 percent of its annual allocation from the river, as well as Nevada.

Norton, in her promise to cut off the surplus last December, told water officials from throughout the West that access to the surplus would not be automatic.

"We will ask for your help in advocating that the surplus guidelines be reinstated as soon as possible," Stapleton told the Nevada water officials.

The Las Vegas officials, including Richard Bunker, chairman of the Nevada Colorado River Commission, indicated that they would support that request.

However, Pat Mulroy, general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, warned that resumption of the surplus-use guidelines would be welcome but would not solve Nevada's water crisis. More than three years of drought has dropped Lake Mead water levels so low that Interior's Bureau of Reclamation, under federal and state agreements, would have to cut the surplus anyway, probably by next January.

The proposed drought plan, now under review by several regional governments, would kick in with watering restrictions and other measures next year if the surplus is lost.

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