Friday, Sept. 30, 2005 | 9:52 a.m.
While a state panel has thus far declined to fund a study of the Colorado River, the panel's counterparts in other states are contributing to the scientific effort.
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and the California Department of Water Resources have both decided to put $30,000 to the study by a panel of scientists and several former government officials handpicked by the National Academy of Sciences' National Research Council.
The study would look at the critical question of how much water really flows through the Colorado River and the potentially sensitive issue of how that water should be managed.
Clark County receives about 90 percent of its water from the river through Lake Mead.
Nevada's seven-member Colorado River Commission, citing concerns about the makeup of the panel, earlier this month unanimously tabled a request for money from for the study. George Caan, commission executive director, said that the funding request may not come back before the board.
Caan said four questions need to be answered before the commission would consider funding the study: What other agencies are contributing to the $450,000 study; the professional backgrounds of the participants; how much, if any, input the Nevada commission would have in the process; and how the ultimate results would be peer-reviewed.
"We want to go ahead and address those questions first and then make a decision on whether to bring it back to the board or not," Caan said.
Other agencies with Colorado River interests have contributed to the effort by the panel, which first met in July.
"I did approve us going forward with the funding," said Dennis Underwood, chief executive officer of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. The agency serves about 23 million people, and one of its main sources is the Colorado River.
"I looked at the panelists, and I tried to inquire why Nevada had second thoughts because I might have had the same concerns. But you can't be afraid of knowledge."
Underwood said the information on the annual stream flows would be very useful for planning purposes, and that the management recommendations that could come from the National Academy of Sciences panel would not have to be instituted.
"A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing. A lot of knowledge can be helpful," he said.
Janine Jones, an engineer with the California Department of Water Resources, said the Golden State matched Met's contribution. Jones agreed that the panel's recommendations would have "no regulatory force."
Bill Kearney, a National Academy of Sciences spokesman, said the academy -- a congressionally chartered group charged with providing unbiased scientific information to various government agencies -- is seeking funding from the states of the Colorado River basin and the federal government on a one-by-one basis.
The academy hopes to receive funding from the federal Bureau of Reclamation, Arizona and potentially the four states of the Upper Colorado River Basin.
"We've had some discussions with other potential Western sources of funding, but we have not formally approached other states yet," Kearney said. "We are making good progress on securing the necessary funding."
He said the academy hopes to receive $275,000, or a little more than half of the funding for the study from state and federal sources.
The issue of managing the river is the subject of ongoing talks among all seven Colorado River Basin states and the federal government. The issues on the table include discussions of how to manage potential cuts to state allotments because of ongoing drought that has hit the river and its two reservoirs -- Lakes Mead and Powell -- hard.
Disagreements between the states, and particularly between the upper and lower basin states, have led to various fears, threats and promises of legal action.
One issue for Colorado River Commission board members is that five of the 12 panel members are from upper basin states Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico, while four are from the lower basin states Arizona, California or Nevada. Also, the panel has two representatives each from Colorado and New Mexico, but Nevada has only one, Reno scientist Kelly Redmond.
There are no scientists or policy experts from Las Vegas on the panel.
Staff members and board members said policy questions could be susceptible to political considerations.
"I think we want to make sure of what the end product is going to be," said Clark County Commissioner Myrna Willliams, a Colorado River Commission board member. "We want to know who these people are. That's all there is to it ... We want to make sure that Southern Nevada people who understand the lower basin are in there and are protecting and looking out for our interests."
River Commission Chairman Richard Bunker, a former Clark County manager, said the issue is that will they look beyond purely scientific issues to management policies.
"It's a lot broader than how much water is there," he said. "Once they get into this thing, who knows where it is going to go. The policy questions could be impacted by politics."06
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