Editorial: Water pact is great, but drought not over

Monday, Oct. 20, 2003 | 8:57 a.m.

It would be hard to overstate the significance of Thursday's signing of the Colorado River pact. Finally, after 70 years of contention among themselves, the federal government and other states that use river water, four California water agencies have agreed to consumption limits and a distribution formula that sends more water to urban areas.

The deal works out well for growing Nevada, which will now be allowed -- nature permitting -- to take 10 percent or more above its basic allocation of Colorado River water. The deal reflects what Southern Nevada Water Authority General Manager Pat Mulroy has been saying for the past 10 years, that the modern era requires greater consideration of urban areas. The U.S. Interior Department and California officials, along with Mulroy and the other Nevada officials involved in the pact, deserve credit for seeing it through.

Although the pact provides more water for Nevada over the next 15 years under normal weather conditions, it stipulates that continued drought could result in our allocation being cut. For Nevada residents, the pact is good news for the long term. But for now, with no end in sight to the drought we've been experiencing over the past several years, it has virtually no effect. Conservation must remain a priority. Allocation rights on paper don't mean much if there is no water to allocate.