River water on states’ agenda

Saturday, Jan. 21, 2006 | 7:37 a.m.

Professional water managers from seven states are once again flocking to Las Vegas for what may be a do-or-die meeting to hammer out recommended rules on how to deal with water shortages in the Colorado River system.

Legal and technical teams from the seven basin states of the drought-ravaged river are already meeting, but the leadership from the states, the federal Interior Department and water agencies in the West are scheduled to meet here Jan. 30.

Interior Secretary Gale Norton has asked the states that use the river for recommendations on how to deal with shortages or face imposition of the rules by her department. Interior's Bureau of Reclamation manages the river's twin giant reservoirs, lakes Powell and Mead, which are almost half empty due to years of drought and growing demand.

Southern Nevada gets nearly all of its water from the Colorado River. Southern California depends on the resource to fertilize millions of acres of vegetables and to augment supplies for more than 20 million people. Other states from Wyoming to Arizona also depend on the river.

Kay Brothers, Southern Nevada Water Authority deputy general manager, said the Jan. 30 meeting will be critical for drafting the recommendations on how to share shortages on the river and how to manage the lakes in a coordinated way.

"We need to have our concepts down and our proposal in a form that will meet their (Interior's) needs," Brothers said. "The time is at hand."

Jeff Kightlinger, general counsel for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, said some potential significant differences remain among the states.

"We still have differences, there's no doubt about it," he said. "But I'm very hopeful."

Kightlinger said legal issues involving the 25-year period of the proposed shortage rules have been tough to resolve.

"How do we bind everyone to this arrangement?" he said. "You don't want to put this together, have everyone agree to it, and then have somebody quit it . ... But all in all, what I see is that people are really getting down to brass tacks."

Nevada and Arizona, which are partners in efforts to bank water underground, are the states that would likely face reductions in the event of a serious shortage on the river. How and when those reductions would come into play, however, has not been decided.

Norton wants the recommendations in time to incorporate them into an environmental impact study that could take about two years and produce the final rules.

Kightlinger said that even if recommendations come out by Feb. 3, Norton's deadline, another 18 months of working out the details would follow.

"What we're really trying to do between now and Feb. 3 is put together a framework," he said.

He said some areas of disagreement, should they remain among the seven states, could be noted and discussed within a broader package of recommendations.

"By the third, we certainly should have something to show you," Kightlinger said. "Hopefully."

Launce Rake can be reached at 259-4127 or at lrake@lasvegassun.com.