St. Thomas tour part of river meeting

Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2005 | 7:24 a.m.

Conferences on the Colorado River used to be dry, dusty affairs, with civil engineers and lawyers listening to each other drone on about obscure technical or legal issues.

In the last five years, however, drought and continued population growth have made the question of water in the West -- and the role of the river as the most important single source of the resource -- critical.

Members of the public can learn about the river's future at a meeting co-sponsored by the Nevada Colorado River Commission and the Nevada Water Resources Association next week.

This is the first time that the conference has been opened to the public, Donna Bloom, the association's director, said.

"It seems to be a question people are concerned about: Where are we going to get the water to support this growth?" she said.

The Las Vegas Valley gets 90 percent of its water from the Colorado River, and a 75-year-old compact prohibits taking much more from the river.

Scheduled to speak at next week's conference are Nevada's top representatives to other states and the federal government in Colorado River negotiations, their counterparts from California and Arizona, and experts from the National Park Service offices at lakes Mead and Powell.

For $20 each, members of the public can attend the meeting scheduled for Oct. 13 and 14 at UNLV, including a lunch on Oct. 13. Another $8 gets you included in the field trip to St. Thomas, the town that was covered by Lake Mead after construction of Hoover Dam but has emerged from the drought-stricken lake. Reservations for the St. Thomas field trip need to be made with the Nevada Water Resources Association on or before Friday.

For more information about the conference, go to www.nvwra.org or call (775) 626-6389.