Agency says it will oppose development group lawsuit

Friday, July 22, 2005 | 9:29 a.m.

The Southern Nevada Water Authority must oppose a lawsuit filed by a Mexican business development group and U.S. environmental groups that seeks to end water seepage from the All-American Canal in Southern California, the agency head said Thursday.

Pat Mulroy, Water Authority general manager, told the agency board that the lining of the All-American Canal to stop water loss is a critical part of California's efforts to conserve water from the Colorado River. That effort, in turn, is a lynchpin of California's complex plan to share water among several competing agencies, and ultimately to California's promise to limit its water use to 4.4 million acre-feet annually.

If the California agreements fall apart, that would put more pressure on the already over-allocated Colorado River, the source of both Las Vegas' water supply and the supply that flows through the All-American Canal for irrigation uses.

An acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons. Southern Nevada's share of the resource from the Colorado River is 300,000 acre-feet annually, less than a tenth of what California takes.

The suit was filed this week in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas by the Consejo de Desarrollo Economico de Mexicali (Mexicali Economic Development Council), a nonprofit group, against the federal Bureau of Reclamation, which manages water supplies along the Colorado River and has offices in Boulder City.

"We're going to have to watch that very carefully," Mulroy told the board. "We're going to be very supportive of California's efforts to line that canal."

The plaintiffs contend that water seepage from the canal, which runs parallel to the border, is essential to recharge a groundwater aquifer near Mexicali on the Mexican side. The 29-mile canal lining project is scheduled to be complete in 2008.