Editorial: Water crisis grows daily

Friday, Aug. 27, 2004 | 8:52 a.m.

Once again Gov. Kenny Guinn has asked the federal government to declare Nevada a disaster area because of the prolonged drought. Federal officials agreed with Guinn last year when he asked for the designation, which allows those hardest hit, including farmers and ranchers, to apply for low-interest loans as a way of contending with losses brought on by the lack of rain and snow. Guinn's request again this year is just one of many responses as our state and region become drier by the day.

In Reno officials are tapping into water reserves for the first time since the waning days of the last drought 10 years ago. In Lake Tahoe, the Associated Press reports, the most popular public ramp on the Nevada side is closed because the lake level is receding. Here in Southern Nevada, water officials have applied to the Bureau of Land Management for permission to draw groundwater, via hundreds of miles of pipelines, from rural Lincoln and White Pine Counties. And because the level of Lake Mead, Las Vegas' source of water, has dropped nearly 90 feet, water officials are being forced to spend up to $20 million to build a deeper intake pipe to provide our drinking water. The lake level, by the way, is expected to keep dropping for the next 15 or 20 years. And Lake Powell, the reservoir that feeds Lake Mead, is at just 40 percent capacity (compared to Lake Mead's 54 percent) and there is a plan afoot to cut the amount of water it releases to Lake Mead by nearly 10 percent.

For years Southern Nevada water authorities have been storing water in underground facilities in Arizona, but this emergency source represents only about a four-month supply at our rapidly growing population's rate of use. It's important for the federal government to grant Gov. Guinn's request for another disaster declaration. But all that will do is provide some low-interest money, and not the water we so desperately need.

From time to time we receive some good news about water, such as recently when water officials backed off plans to impose emergency drought measures next year because water conservation programs have achieved moderate success. While such news is welcome, we hope it doesn't obscure the big picture, which shows a growing water crisis with no end in sight. "The drought is very worrisome," Bob Johnson, a regional director for the Bureau of Reclamation, told the Sun. "This is a significant event. ... It's time to be concerned, it's time to start planning for the worst, but it's not time to panic." In our view, the only way to ensure against panic in the coming years is for everyone to conserve water in the strictest way they can -- whether or not emergency drought measures are imposed.