Local water officials disturbed by tour

Monday, Feb. 17, 2003 | 11:07 a.m.

Planners designed a three-day, 300-mile trip along the southern reaches of the Colorado River to give insights to the leaders and staff members of Nevada's water agencies.

Those officials said the insights they gained did not make them at all comfortable. They saw some of the 8 million irrigated acres flooded with river water. They saw the engineering marvels that have provided Los Angeles, Phoenix and the desert Southwest with water.

But what they did not see on the tour, which concluded Friday, was evidence that a crippling drought is making an impact south of Lake Mead.

"The whole reason for this tour was to see the impact of the drought and to see the differences between ourselves and the water users in the south," said Pat Mulroy, general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, the agency that organized the tour.

For Mulroy and staff members from her agency, Clark County and Las Vegas, Henderson, Boulder City, Laughlin and North Las Vegas, the conclusion was that the water-hungry consumers south of Lake Mead are largely oblivious to a three-year drought that already dramatically affects the northern Colorado River Basin.

"They have absolutely no perspective of what's happening upstream from them," Mulroy said.

Officials on the trip included Colorado River Commission Chairman Richard Bunker, Henderson Councilwoman and Southern Nevada Water Authority Chairwoman Amanda Cyphers, water authority board member and Boulder City Councilman Bryan Nix and water authority board member and Clark County Commissioner Myrna Williams.

They passed through vast fields irrigated with flood technology, an inefficient technique that keeps Arizona and California deserts blooming with alfalfa and cotton; saw the resort haven of Lake Havasu; and walked the shores of the Salton Sea, where fish bones and barnacles make up a beachfront kept alive through agricultural runoff.

They saw the relative trickle of water, most of it irrigation runoff, that finally passes through to Mexico.

Cyphers took a similar trip about four years ago. Despite the worst drought in recorded history, little in the practices of water users downstream has changed, she said.

"The perception is: There isn't a drought," she said. "Nothing has really changed."

Cyphers said the tour's visit to Lake Mead should have made it clear to any local officials -- those who didn't get it before -- that there is a problem. The lake, the source of about 80 percent of Clark County residents' drinking water, is down 60 feet and continues to drop. The lake's manager, the federal Bureau of Reclamation, is expected to impose mandatory water-use cutbacks next January.

Cyphers' agency, the water authority, is plugging a sweeping plan that would hike penalties for water waste, restrict new turf planting and limit water use for irrigation, car washing and other purposes in the Las Vegas area.

Southern California's Metropolitan Water District, which serves about 17 million customers and depends on the Colorado River for about a quarter of its water needs, always strives for conservation, Dennis Underwood, the agency's vice president, said. But unlike Southern Nevada, the agency does not have any plans to impose a mandatory conservation plan.

Other water users, among them the Coachella Water District, the Palo Verde Irrigation District and the Imperial Irrigation District in California, insist they already are doing what they can to conserve. The Imperial Irrigation District says it needs more water than is now provided by the Bureau of Reclamation to grow crops.

Cyphers and Mulroy are not oblivious to the irony of Las Vegas' plight while other consumers of the river water remain unaffected. Discussions on the Colorado River's use and distribution are never-ending. This information, they said, will be part of the conversation.

"It's good, at times, to sit down and understand other people's way of thinking," Cyphers said. "Somewhere along the line, we're all going to have to sit down and discuss these issues."

Mulroy said the effect of the drought has been intense on Southern Nevada, Colorado and the other consumers of water north of Hoover Dam. That impact would have a devastating effect on users south of the dam if the drought worsens, she predicted.

"They're at the end of the river. They feel it last," she said. "It's going to be a real shock for them if they do feel it."