States still at odds over how to divvy water

Friday, May 27, 2005 | 9:07 a.m.

Representatives from seven states in the Colorado River basin met in Henderson Thursday, but divisions over how to share the limited water of the river continue to split the delegations.

The seven states are split into two camps: the upper basin states of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, whose representatives generally want to reduce the amount of water flowing from the upper basin reservoir of Lake Powell to Lake Mead; and the lower basin states of California, Arizona and Nevada, which collectively depend on Mead for water and do not want any cutbacks short of a crisis situation.

The federal government, which runs the lower basin water releases and the dams that created Powell and Mead, wants recommendations from the states on the annual operating plan and shortage guidelines. Interior Secretary Gale Norton has taken the ultimate responsibility for how much water to send down from Powell to lower-basin users.

Throughout the meeting, the specter of a failure to produce a consensus leading to the possibility of protracted inter-state lawsuits hung over the discussions. Representatives from both upper- and lower-basin states said they want to avoid a legal war over access to Colorado River water.

"Ultimately, finding a solution that avoids that kind of destabilizing litigation is our goal," said Bob Johnson, Bureau of Reclamation lower basin director. The bureau is the Interior Department agency that manages water releases from Powell and Mead.

The states agreed on several other basic points during two sessions at the Henderson Convention Center. During the first session, the representatives discussed the efforts to design standards for cutting use back during a crisis of shortages, which many feel is looming because of drought.

In the second session, the representatives focused on what should be the operating plan for the federal government's management of the reservoirs and the Colorado River over the next water year, which begins in October when snowfall begins collecting in the Rocky Mountains.

The delegations generally agreed that some sort of guidelines for shortages, a scenario that threatens lake levels despite improving over the winter, are necessary. Years of drought are still taking their toll and could return next winter, officials from the federal, state and local water agencies fear.

"We really do need to have shortage guidelines for Lake Mead," said Tom Carr, assistant director of Arizona's Office of Statewide Conservation and Strategic Planning.

Other delegations and Bureau of Reclamation officials agreed. The bureau, which had imposed a deadline of last month for the states to come up with a recommendation on how to handle shortages, now has a two-year window to come up with its own policies on shortages.

Bureau officials said at Thursday's meeting that a notice of intent to draft the rules will be distributed through the Federal Register June 15.

Johnson said the rule-writing process would be public and would give the states, despite the missed deadline in April, opportunity to offer recommendations.

Larry Dozier, Central Arizona Project deputy general manager, said shortage rules need to be fair and the cutbacks, if they come, should not come down on one or two states. Arizona is the most junior in terms of priority access to river water, followed by Nevada, which uses its rights to river water to satisfy nearly all of the needs in Las Vegas.

Dozier said Arizona could take a hit that lasts for a year or two by paying farmers to let their farms lie fallow, but after that the economic impact caused by water shortages imposed on Arizona alone would cause severe problems for the state.

The upper and lower basins split over other issues. Carr, with Arizona, and Gerald Zimmerman, executive director of California's Colorado River Board, said no "mid-year" review of releases would be needed next year. The comments prompted strong opposition from the upper basin states, which want mid-year reviews as a potential tool to restrict releases from Powell.

Robert King, a water-system manager for Utah, said such a review is critical to avoid disaster if next year's winter precipitation falls significantly short. That would lead to rapidly falling levels in Powell unless water releases were reduced.

"We have no idea what next year's snowpack is going to be," King told the the representatives. "We need to have that option, the secretary (of Interior) needs that option because nobody knows what's going to happen next year."

But Zimmerman, with California, said the wet winter and continued inflows will allow Powell to continue to recover, while releases from Mead to Arizona, California and Nevada will mean the lower reservoir continues to drop. Mead is now the least depleted of the two reservoirs, with about two-thirds of capacity.

"It is guaranteed Lake Mead is going to continue to drop," Zimmerman said.

Those attending the session heard some good news. Last winter's precipitation is propping up levels in both Powell and Mead.

"Having water is a lot better than having drought," said Tom Ryan of the Bureau of the Reclamation.

Powell, which was two-thirds empty as recently as April, is now up to 41 percent capacity, and water levels are rising by 1.5 feet a day, Ryan said. Since April 5, Powell's water level has risen 25 feet. By Sept. 30 of this year, the bureau expects the upper reservoir to be 49 percent full.

Ryan's report led Kay Brothers, deputy general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, to lead a small burst of spontaneous applause.

The representatives of the states agreed to meet twice more before the start of the water year in October, once in August and late in September.