Agencies satisfied with plan for water

Friday, March 14, 2003 | 11:18 a.m.

Representatives of water agencies from throughout the Colorado River Basin gave mostly positive reviews Thursday to a California plan to reduce long-term dependence on the river -- and provide extra water for Nevada for 15 years.

The agencies from the seven river states met in Las Vegas and heard details of the plan from four Southern California agencies and Calif. Gov. Gray Davis' staff.

The plan regulates the amounts of water those agencies would receive from the river for agricultural and urban use. The plan also aims to revive the Salton Sea and requires California and Nevada to wean themselves from so-called "surplus" water. The lack of ratified plan led the federal Interior Department to cut off the use of that surplus Jan. 1 for both states.

Nevada officials hoped to use the surplus to store water for future needs and to mitigate the effects of more than three years of drought. Pat Mulroy, general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, said after the presentation by the California officials that she believes the new, revised quantification agreement is a good one.

The new plan includes significant investment in conservation, environmental mitigation and infrastructure that the earlier plan lacked, she said.

Mulroy said her staff -- and the agencies from throughout the basin -- will look carefully at the 51 documents that make up the agreement and meet again with the California officials in two weeks.

"There might have to be some tweaking, but there's nothing that you would call a show-stopper," Mulroy said.

Arizona, California and Nevada are the three states on the Lower Colorado River Basin and are the states most dependent on the river. The states of the upper basin -- Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico -- have long-term plans to use more of the river resource.

The surplus used by California and Nevada is water that is not now used by the upper basin states, but both states have agreed to wean themselves from that extra water within 15 years.

Approval by all seven states in the river basin is one hurdle that the agreement must clear. Interior also must sign off, and Interior Assistant Secretary Bennett Raley said after a similar briefing that federal officials also need to scrutinize the documents' fine print.

The cash-strapped California legislature also must find $200 million and to implement the agreement.

The primary element of the agreement would transfer 200,000 acre-feet of water yearly from California's agricultural Imperial Valley to urban water users in San Diego. One acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons, or how much water a typical Las Vegas family of five uses in a year.

The critical issue for Southern Nevada has always been the surplus -- or, after Interior's cutoff, the lack of it.

Southern Nevada, like California, uses all of its basic allocation of 300,000 acre-feet a year. It has banked on another 30,000 acre-feet yearly -- a surplus defined as unused apportionment from the states on the Upper Colorado Basin -- to accommodate rising demand and put aside a reserve for future demands while new infrastructure comes on line to satisfy demand.

Despite the positive moves on the California agreement, it is unclear whether Nevada or California will be able to draw much of the surplus this year, federal and state officials warned.

One issue is timing. The earliest that the California agreement could pass is July 1, and it might be as late as Oct. 30, officials from the Golden State said. Interior would then have to formally embrace the plan before it could legally release the surplus water.