Deal signed to allow valley to bank water

Thursday, Oct. 28, 2004 | 11:08 a.m.

The Bush administration's point man for Colorado River water issues signed the interstate agreement between Southern Nevada and Southern California in Las Vegas Wednesday.

The agreement allows the Southern Nevada Water Authority, the water wholesaler supplying nearly all of urban Clark County's water needs, with the right to store or "bank" water from the Colorado River in Southern California. The agreement, approved earlier this month by the water authority and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, was hailed by the agencies as a milestone of cooperation.

The agreement allows Las Vegas to bank up to 30,000 acre-feet of water annually with its western neighbor and means that now both California and Arizona are helping bank water for Southern Nevada.

"I have signed the agreement that authorizes the banking between Southern Nevada and the MWD with great pleasure," Assistand Interior Secretary Bennett Raley said.

He said the agreement is an example of critically important coordination between the states along the Colorado River and would serve as a model for future cooperation.

"Having cooperation between Southern Nevada and MWD is priceless," Raley said. "For some time, the secretary (Interior Secretary Gale Norton) has been talking about the need for states to come up with solutions to the issues affecting the Colorado River. We floated ideas, but the states needed to come up with solutions as well.

"Now we're hearing from the states. It's the cooperative approach that the secretary wants to happen, but cannot compel. There is no question but that this is the direction the river is going to take."

The agreement gives the Metropolitan Water District 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 enough water for 1.5 families in Southern Nevada for one year.

Under the deal, the water authority would transfer the rights to water that it could take from the lake to California. 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, needs 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.

Vince Alberta, water authority spokesman, said the deal was important in the effort to overcome five consecutive years of drought plaguing the Colorado River and the states that depend on the river's resource.

"It demonstrates what the states can accomplish when we work together and is an example of how we are going to have to operate going forward if we are going to survive the worst drought on record," Alberta said.

Raley would be the third high-ranking Interior Department official to visit Southern Nevada in as many days. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Mike Leavitt toured Hoover Dam Tuesday.

Norton, Raley's and Leavitt's boss, is scheduled to hold a press conference today in Las Vegas announcing the disposition of funds from the sale of federal lands in Clark County for environmental and recreational purposes.

Raley said that his visit is not connected to the sharply contested presidential election Tuesday, for which Nevada is considered a potentially key swing state. He said he has not had any discussions with the Bush re-election campaign.

Raley said the main reason he had for visiting Nevada is to attend "a very important event in Carson City," which would be the transfer of about 30,000 acres of wetlands from federal to state oversight. Gov. Kenny Guinn and Sen. Harry Reid, a Democrat, will also attend the transfer ceremony, he said.