States meet over Colorado River

Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2005 | 9:21 a.m.

The tough task of managing the Colorado River by committee continued with a Monday morning meeting of representatives from the seven states that use the river resource.

"A mid-year review of the annual operating plan of the Colorado River" might sound boring even for a collection of river-policy wonks, but the issues facing the group, which met at McCarran International Airport, could affect the critical issue of how much water is available for Las Vegas and its neighbors.

Discussion focused on how much water to send to Lake Mead, which stores water for California, Arizona and Nevada. Representatives from California and Arizona suggested striking the language calling for the mid-year review from the annual river plan.

Their counterparts from the federal Bureau of Reclamation, the Department of Interior agency that actual oversees river management, and the four upper basin states want to keep the review in the annual document.

The conversation comes as various parties, among them the four upper-basin states -- Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico -- plus Arizona and Nevada have threatened legal actions to protect their water supplies.

The upper basin states fear that the trio of lower basin states, Arizona, Nevada and California, could under an existing interpretation of river law demand 8.23 million acre-feet of water be delivered, regardless of river conditions. Such a demand could mean cuts to the amount of water available to upper basin users.

Last year the upper basin states wanted Interior Secretary Gale Norton to use the mid-year review to cut the annual operating plan's scheduled delivery of water from the upper reservoir, Lake Powell, to Lake Mead.

Norton did not reduce the water deliveries last year, but Larry Dozier, deputy general manager of the Central Arizona Project, which brings Colorado River water to consumers in Phoenix, worries that the mid-year review could open the door to another effort by the upper basin states to reduce the releases from Lake Powell.

Dozier noted that the states and Interior Department officials are simultaneously working on rules that would govern how much the states would get from the river if drought further diminishes reserves from both lakes Mead and Powell. Dozier said those discussions should produce any rules for cutting the amount released from Powell to Mead.

"We're corrupting the process," he said. "Certainly, if we had extreme hydrologic events between now and next spring, we'll take a second look at things. We can initiate discussions with the secretary of Interior."

Ultimately Norton and the Interior Department will decide whether to include the mid-year review of the annual operating plan. Nevada representatives to the group discussions, which have become more frequent and more important as drought threatens the river, said they don't want to tangle with the secretary.

"We recognize the secretary's authority," said Ken Albright, Southern Nevada Water Authority resource director.

Another man who recognizes the secretary's authority is Robert Johnson, who as Bureau of Reclamation regional director works for Norton. He said Norton, with or without a mid-year review, can cut the amount of water flowing from Powell if it is necessary to protect supplies or power production in the upper reservoir.

"The secretary made it clear in her letter to the basin states (last spring) that she does have the authority to do a mid-year review, to reduce the 8.23 (million acre-feet)," Johnson said. "We've made it clear we think we can do it."

Johnson said federal officials would continue to take suggestions from the states on how to modify the plan through November. The states and federal officials also will meet again in November to discuss rules on how to handle potential cuts because of the drought.

The annual operating plan is finished before the end of the year.