Sunday, Sept. 10, 2006 | 7:36 a.m.
By Pat Mulroy
Few would argue that Southern Nevada is the driest metropolitan area in the United States. What many did not realize until recently is that its residents are among the most aggressive water conservers in the country.
As I pen these words during the blistering month of August, I extend the heartfelt thanks of the Southern Nevada Water Authority board of directors and staff for all you have done to achieve the incredible water savings we have generated during the past several years.
To everyone who has remembered to change his sprinkler clocks seasonally; to everyone who has replaced turf with water-efficient landscaping; to everyone who has truly embraced life in the desert, we thank you. While we still have room for improvement, our community's successes are being lauded throughout the country.
For the past six years, our greatest challenge has been ensuring a reliable water supply in the face of the worst drought to befall the Colorado River in centuries. Even the greatest skeptics are beginning to believe that this may very well be related to some fundamental changes in the Earth's climate.
This year began with promise for those of us who rely upon the Colorado River (90 percent of our water comes from this single source). Each storm in the Rockies held the promise that the drought plaguing the river might abate. Then, in the instant it takes for snow to turn to vapor without melting, the optimism evaporated.
The Las Vegas Valley must protect itself against drought, and our state's economy depends upon Southern Nevada. We support hundreds of thousands of jobs and generate more than two-thirds of the state's tax revenue, funding that supports services throughout Nevada.
To insulate our community from drought and meet projected long-term needs, we reserved many years ago a portion of Nevada's unused, naturally renewable ground water resources. That formed the basis of our current in-state ground water development project.
Besides providing new resources, these ground water basins provide excellent opportunities to store water that would otherwise evaporate. We have been recharging our own basin for years with great success; creating new opportunities to store water for dry times will become increasingly imperative.
Opponents of our project claim that there is no ground water available for withdrawal. Half a century's worth of studies prove otherwise. The Nevada state engineer - the office responsible for permitting water rights - estimates that Spring Valley alone has a perennial yield of 100,000 acre-feet, or almost 33 billion gallons, per year. Only a tiny portion of that is being used.
You - the residents of Southern Nevada - have a legitimate right to Nevada's unused water supplies.
The latest source of angst involves how the water table will respond to withdrawals. The truth is that the answer cannot be known without pumping and monitoring the aquifer. Predicting hydrologic effects is like solving an algebraic equation.
In this case, the problem is that nobody has ever pumped ground water from Spring Valley in any volume, so there's no data to provide the "X" or the "Y." Opponents have used this in an effort to create a Catch-22 based on the premise that effects cannot be predicted without pumping, and therefore pumping should not be allowed.
Nevada water law, which is among the strictest in the nation, is clear about what questions must be answered before water rights are granted. How much water is available? What will be done to protect existing water users? What will be done to protect sensitive environmental resources?
The answer to the final two questions is adaptive management. The Southern Nevada Water Authority will diffuse pumping throughout the basins to minimize its effects. We can take surface water that would otherwise evaporate and inject it into the ground to supplement natural recharge. All it takes is a commitment to do the right thing.
Which raises an important point: Aside from the fact that the Southern Nevada Water Authority has a sterling record of environmental stewardship - such as securing habitat for the endangered Moapa dace, counting pupfish in Devils Hole and creating conservation programs that have reduced Southern Nevada's municipal water consumption by 20 billion gallons per year - consider our investment in this renewable resource: We're prepared to invest about $2 billion to build the infrastructure required to bring this new supply to our residents.
It would be foolhardy to go to all this effort and expense, then destroy this resource by overpumping.
For the last eight months, we have been in discussion with White Pine County's leaders to find ways to address their fears. We have offered them a seat at the table to help manage and protect the basins and have offered, among other things, to establish a multimillion-dollar fund to pay for any protections needed for existing users and the environment. Thus far, the community has refused to enter into any agreements.
This month the Nevada state engineer is going to decide how much of Spring Valley's available water our residents can use. It will determine how future Southern Nevadans will survive the ravages of drought. All we ask is that the ruling reflect the same standard applied to all other applicants, and that it not be influenced by the rhetoric of fear.
archive
