Water authority board OKs deal with California

Friday, Oct. 22, 2004 | 9:29 a.m.

The board of the Southern Nevada Water Authority approved a deal with Southern California Thursday that will allow Las Vegas to store, or "bank," up to 30,000 acre-feet of water annually with its neighbor.

The 6-0 approval means that both California and Arizona are helping bank water for Southern Nevada. The agreement with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California gives that water agency access to unused Nevada allocations from Lake Mead in return for credits for future use through 2010.

An acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons of water, or about enough water for 1.5 families in Southern Nevada for one year.

Under the deal the water authority would transfer to California the rights to water that the water authority is allowed to take from the lake. California would draw the water from the lake, then store a similar amount of its lower-quality surface water in aquifers in California.

When the water authority, the water wholesaler for Southern Nevada, needed more water than its 300,000 acre-foot allocation from Lake Mead, it could take from California's Lake Mead allocation up to 30,000 acre-feet a year, while Southern California would turn to its banked supply to supplement its water.

The water authority also banks water in Arizona and in Clark County.

"It is the first agreement of its kind with Metropolitan and within the state of California," water authority General Manager Pat Mulroy said. With the agreement, the water agencies "begin to create that spirit of cooperation in the Lower Basin that the region so desperately needs as the drought deepens."

Nevada, California and Arizona, the three states that make up the Lower Basin of the Colorado River, are dealing with five years of drought that have threatened water supplies in Lake Mead.

In other water news, Kay Brothers, water authority deputy general manager, said the region continues to do well with water conservation efforts, although water use for September was up from last year.

Southern Nevada consumers in September used more than 46,000 acre-feet, up from about 45,000 acre-feet last year. Water use for the year is just slightly below what it was at the same time last year.

In 2003 the water authority reported a better than 15 percent reduction in water consumption from the previous year, bringing the total consumed below the 300,000 acre-foot maximum allocation. That allowed the water authority to bank more than 15,000 acre-feet last year against future needs, water authority officials said.

Brothers said the water authority hopes to be able to continue to cut water consumption and bank more water, even if this year looks as if it will be about equal -- so far -- to last year. She noted that although the totals of water use are about the same, the population in Southern Nevada has continued to grow, so the per-capita use continues to dip.

Clark County's population grows by about 70,000 people each year.

Brothers said September also could have had higher demand because it had very little summer rain, which means people had to irrigate outside more. Conservation efforts, including $32 million rebate program, continue to cut per capita water use in the region, she said.

"We're still very busy on the Water Smart landscaping program," Brothers said.