Editorial: It appears water deal will work

Monday, March 17, 2003 | 8:50 a.m.

It is encouraging that a tentative agreement has been reached among Southern California water officials to reduce that region's consumption of water from the Colorado River. More than two months ago those agencies missed a year-end deadline to reach an agreement to finalize a deal, prompting the U.S. Interior Department to stop Southern California and Southern Nevada from drawing surplus Colorado River water. It didn't seem fair that Southern Nevada was penalized because of Southern California's inability to reach a water conservation deal, but the Law of the River requires that everyone be treated equally when allocating the surplus.

The reason why the surplus water was being shut off was the lack of conservation in California that coincided with a severe three-year drought in the Colorado River's Upper Basin. If this tentative deal holds up, it could take until the end of the year before federal officials sign off on releasing surplus water. Even then, there's no guarantee that the extra water will be released if the drought continues to worsen. For that matter, as Sun reporter Launce Rake noted last week, the tentative plan requires both California and Nevada to wean themselves from surplus water.

All of this is good news if the deal holds up, but Southern Nevadans still will have to realize that our past ways of using water will have to come to an end. Lawns may no longer be as green throughout the year and hopefully many more homeowners, businesses (including golf courses) and government complexes will rip up at least part of their turf and start using desert landscaping. No matter how much some of us would like to deny it, we do live in a desert and we have to accept that reality.