Federal, local officials to share water information

Monday, Sept. 22, 2003 | 9:20 a.m.

Federal, state and local officials will gather in Henderson next week to look at a shrinking local resource.

The Nevada Water Resources Association will hold a symposium Sept. 29 and 30 at the Henderson Convention Center about Lake Mead, the nation's largest artificial reservoir. The lake, the source of more than 80 percent of Southern Nevada's drinking water, has been hit hard by growing demand throughout the Southwest and four years of drought.

Donna Bloom, association executive director, said the group is focusing on Lake Mead because of thorny legal and environmental questions affecting the lake and the Colorado River that feeds it.

"Lake Mead is in a critical situation right now," she said.

Just three years ago Lake Mead water levels hovered near all-time highs, about 1,200 feet above sea level. Today those levels have plummeted by close to 60 feet. If lake levels continue to fall, distribution of the full apportionment from the lake and the Colorado River could be affected.

Ken Albright, Southern Nevada Water Authority resource director, said it is critically important that officials from all of the affected agencies have as much information on the lake's status as possible.

"It's a two-day knowledge exchange," he said. "Everybody has a different perspective, a little piece of the pie.

"We really need to make sure we stay abreast of everything."

He said it was particularly important that local officials meet with their federal counterparts.

"We want the feds to know what we know, and we want to know what they know," Albright said.

Among the topics in the symposium will be the drought, environmental issues, the complex legal and political history of the river and lake, and the on-again, off-again negotiations in California that hold thousands of acre-feet of Las Vegas' water in the balance.

Four Southern California water agencies have battled for years over how to share the available water from the Colorado River. In the absence of an accord, the Interior Department, which acts as the river master, cut off access to so-called surplus water -- water allotted to but not used by other states -- for both California and Nevada.

Nevada has proposed separating the two states on the surplus issue, allowing Nevada to receive more than 10 percent more than its basic allotment of 300,000 acre-feet per year. That would be enough water for perhaps 150,000 people, and officials for the local Southern Nevada Water Authority badly want that water to satisfy the growing local need for another decade.

Registration for the symposium is $200 and is open to the public. For information call the association at (775) 626-6389.