LV will have water even if Lake Powell release is cut

Thursday, March 31, 2005 | 9:15 a.m.

Southern Nevada will be able to make do if federal officials cut the amount of water sent downstream from Lake Powell, the general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority said Wednesday.

The Interior Department is moving forward with a required mid-year review of the amount of water that can be released from Lake Powell, federal officials said Wednesday. The annual amount sent down from Powell has been 8.23 million acre-feet. Five years of the worst drought in the modern history of the river, however, have called that annual release into question, although relatively healthy precipitation amounts this winter have helped ease the crisis.

Some officials from states along the Upper Basin of the river -- Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico and Utah -- have called for a reduction in the volume released from Powell to 7.5 million acre-feet. That would keep more water for energy production and recreation in the upstream reservoir.

Powell is now two-thirds empty, while Mead stands at a little over 60 percent of its capacity.

Although the proposal to release less water from Powell would mean slightly less water available in Mead, Pat Mulroy, general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, said it is a proposal that should be considered by the federal authorities.

"If there is a way we can allow more water to stay in Powell, we should consider that," she said.

Heavy rain and snow has particularly benefited the Lower Basin of the Colorado River, which includes Lake Mead, she said.

"Given the huge amounts of water that have come into the system in the Lower Basin as opposed to simply fed out of snow melt in the Upper Basin, the worst place Nevada could be in January of '06 is where we were predicted to be last January," she said, with a Lake Mead water level of 1,125 feet above sea level.

Interior's Bureau of Reclamation had predicted Lake Mead would fall to that point before rain and snow added water to the lake and cut downstream demand. Instead, the lake level is at 1,147 feet and holding, for now.

In a related issue, Mulroy said the states of both basins will not meet an April deadline to recommend how cuts would be instituted along the river if water shortages continue. The federal officials said they want those recommendations before the end of April because in May a formal, 2-year process to develop the "shortage criteria" would begin.

Federal officials said the danger for the state agencies, including the Southern Nevada Water Authority, is that without recommendations in hand, the federal government might not have enough time to include those provisions in any final policy package.