Colorado River states discuss water priorities

Monday, May 17, 2004 | 9:26 a.m.

Representatives from seven Colorado River basin states today will begin discussing a proposal that would give urban areas some of the water that has long been earmarked for agricultural use.

That kind of conversion has long been seen as a stopgap measure by the leadership of Southern Nevada's water agencies, which are faced with the limits of its take from Lake Mead.

Lake Mead, fed by the Colorado River, supplies about 90 percent of Southern Nevada's drinking water supply. The region is close to the maximum it can take from the lake, and if the drought worsens, those limits could be cut.

Southern Nevada Water Authority Genral Manager Mulroy said a worse-case scenario would see the lake drop below the intake pipes for the water supply.

"We need to keep Lake Mead levels up at a significant level," she said. "We can't afford to have our intakes exposed."

Some Colorado River water users in other states are concerned that proposals to convert agricultural water use to urban needs in areas such as Las Vegas could lead to the permanent loss of those rights to the river water.

Mulroy said that isn't the plan. The idea is to let agricultural land go fallow until the drought is over to allow the water to go to urban areas. It would be temporary, she said.

"The other side of the bridge is the end of the drought, us developing our in-state resources so we have some independence," she said. "This drought has shown us pretty clearly that no matter how resilient you think Lake Mead and Lake Powell are, Mother Nature can throw you a curve ball."

No decisions are expected at today's closed-door meeting, one of a series that the basin states have held as the drought worsens and the threat of cuts to water allocations from Lake Mead grows.

Mulroy said fallowing will be a central part of today's discussions, but she knows the idea faces resistance from other states.

Patrick Tyrrell, Wyoming state engineer, said the existing Colorado River Compact, called the law of the river, does not allow for transfers from the upper basin states of Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico to the fast-growing lower basin states of Arizona, California and Nevada.

He noted that Wyoming and its neighbors want to preserve its water rights for future needs. The upper basin states, he said, are also suffering from the effects of drought, so "marketing" water won't work.

"Where are you going to get the water to market, anyway?" Tyrrell asked. "The water is not there. It is not like we have water up there sitting in buckets waiting to market."

Bennett Raley, Interior Department assistant secretary for water, will participate. In the past he has called for flexibility in responding to the crisis of drought and demand on the river.

Dennis Underwood, vice president of the Metropolitan Water District, which serves 20 million customers in Southern California, also will attend. Underwood noted that transfers of water from agriculture to his urban customers are already happening in various ways within California.

"We've done various forms of ag(riculture) partnerships," he said.

Arizona, too, is considering more conversion. About 68 percent of Arizona's water resources are used for agriculture, compared to virtually none in Nevada.

Sid Wilson, general manager of the Central Arizona Water Conservation District, said that within his state, agricultural uses have the lowest priority. Agricultural can give way to urban uses within Arizona, but he doesn't like the idea of transferring rights to river water to other states.

"That is the resource we're relying on for the future," Wilson said.