Water shortage rules discussed

Wednesday, July 27, 2005 | 10:52 a.m.

The federal agency charged with managing flows of the Colorado River -- and deliveries of water to communities that include Las Vegas -- opened what could be a contentious process to decide how those deliveries would be cut if the river resource continues to shrink.

Interests of urban water uses were pitted against those of farmers as speakers represented diverse perspectives on the future of the Colorado at the Bureau of Reclamation's two-hour meeting in Henderson Tuesday.

The agency, a bureau of the Department of Interior, is beginning a process that should result in rules governing how to handle feared water shortages on the river, a consequence of growing demand and drought-induced drops in water levels in Lakes Mead and Powell, the river's two main reservoirs.

Some of those who came to the Tuesday meeting asked the Bureau of Reclamation to consider the recreational uses of Mead and Powell when considering when and how to institute cuts to allocations from the river.

Others urged the bureau to put urban uses such as those in Las Vegas above agricultural users, mostly downstream in California's Imperial Valley.

One attorney representing an Imperial Valley farming family, however, noted that the farmers there have the priority water rights to the river -- and would like to keep them.

A conservation group urged the bureau to get rid of one large reservoir altogether by eliminating the Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell, a move that the group Living Rivers believes would protect Grand Canyon from further environmental deterioration.

All of the perspectives will be included as the process of drafting the new rules, bureau officials said.

Interior Secretary Gale Norton has given the agency until December 2007 to draft the rules, they noted.

"It's a bit uncertain how we would, when we would or how we would administer a shortage," said Terry Fulp, Bureau of Reclamation area manager for the Boulder Canyon operations office, in his short presentation before taking the public comments.

Fulp understated the process that is now roiling among the seven basin states along the Colorado River, including Nevada.

The drive to establish the new rules would be difficult in the best of times, but the climate has not been cooperative.

"We've just experienced the worst five-year drought in the 100-year history of the Colorado River," Fulp said, referring to record keeping on the river.

He noted that his bureau has never cut allocations to the basin states. Fulp also noted several goals of the agency as it moves forward, one of which would be to avoid "unnecessary, protracted or destabilizing litigation."

Michael Jackson, an attorney representing a family of farmers in California's Imperial Valley, said avoiding litigation would probably be impossible.

"Somebody's going to sue you, so I wouldn't spend a lot of time on that one," Jackson said of the bureau's goals.

He said the system of priority use now in place needs to be protected. The system gives the priority to agricultural users such as his clients in the Imperial Valley.

Jackson's client, the Abatti family, uses about as much water for farming as all of urban Southern Nevada takes to supply water to about 1.7 million people.

"It is extremely important that you follow the law of the river and recognize rights that have priority," Jackson said.

But one Las Vegas resident and businessman disagreed. Ed Uehling said the river water coming to Las Vegas supports more jobs and has more value than that going to agricultural uses downstream.

Uehling, echoing others in the long-running debate over rivers uses, called for reorganizing the system of allocations so that urban areas get more of the resource.

"There are many solutions here, but the one that is being practiced is absolutely the worst," Uehling said.

Bob Johnson, regional director of the Bureau of Reclamation, said all of the proposals that come to the agency would be evaluated. He said the rule-making process also is likely to require a formal environmental impact statement, which would require another round of public meetings and additional opportunities for public comment.

Johnson said his agency is working with a number of issues as it tries to deal with a shortage that threatens now.

On the group that suggests that the bureau remove the the Glen Canyon Dam and eliminate the second largest -- after Lake Mead -- artificial reservoir in the United States, Johnson said the directions from Congress don't give the bureau a lot of leeway.

Congress has written the laws to specifically prohibit the bureau from considering how to remove the dam and eliminate Lake Powell, Johnson said.

"Congress has spoken very clearly," he said.

On another front, Johnson said, the agency is preparing a response to a lawsuit filed by a Mexican economic development group in conjunction with several environmental groups that seeks to stop the effort to prevent water leaking from the 30-mile All American Canal on the U.S.-Mexico border.

The groups suing the bureau argue that the leaking water supports agriculture and the natural environment in the area, but sealing the canal is a critical part of a coordinated effort to stop water lost from the river. The loss is equal to about 70,000 acre-feet of water, or about a quarter of what Las Vegas takes from the river annually.

If the lawsuit forces the bureau and California agencies to abandon the sealing effort, it could throw the agencies' effort into disarray, he said.

"It does have the potential to have an impact," Johnson said. The stop-loss effort is "an important part" of the agreement designed to keep California within its formal allocation from the river of 4.4 million acre-feet, he said.

Johnson said the bureau is working hard with Mexican authorities to resolve the issue.

"We've done lots of things with Mexico on a number of concerns ... We want to be good neighbors."

Johnson said he doesn't believe the discussion on new rules to govern how states receive water during shortages has to end up in court -- a process that could take years or decades to resolve.

He said groups have sued over Colorado River issues before, but those suits have never derailed the fundamental operating systems of the bureau. Johnson hopes that trend continues.

"We don't want litigation," he said. "We want to solve these problems without going to the courts. We'll do everything we can ... In the meantime, the water flows and the river has to be operated."

Another meeting will take place in Salt Lake City on Thursday.