Water experts weigh in on surviving decade-long drought

By Conor Shine

Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2014 | 2:55 p.m.

Dozens of water experts gathered in Las Vegas this week to tackle one of the most pressing issues in the West — how to survive the crippling drought that's persisted here for more than a decade.

The discussion stretched over two days and ranged from new water recycling technologies to modernizing outdated rules that govern water rights. Experts agreed that no single technology or policy will solve the drought and gathered in Las Vegas to share which strategies are working in their home states.

The drought forum, which ended today, was sponsored by the Western Governors' Association and drew representatives from water districts, conservation groups and private businesses from several western states including Utah, California, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico. Gov. Brian Sandoval is chairman of the association and has made sharing ideas for dealing with the drought a major initiative during his tenure.

"It's a problem that affects the entire West. It's all interconnected," said Pat Mulroy, a Brookings Mountain West fellow and faculty member at Desert Research Institute who attended the forum. "The more we can discuss this and start to find common ground, the less confrontation there will be later."

Monday's discussions focused on current drought conditions in the West and how that was impacting water supplies.

Today's discussions focused specifically on new technologies for dealing with the drought and potential policy approaches for mitigating the drought's impact.

Technological solutions ranged from the small scale — like giving customers real-time data on water usage to encourage conservation — to more complicated projects, like ocean desalination and recycling graywater.

The most lively debate was over potential policy changes to modernize a dated system for governing water rights. For instance, farmers must use their allocation of Colorado River water or risk having it cut in future years. The system is meant to protect water rights, but experts worry it discourages conservation efforts.

This week's event was the final of four drought forums hosted by the Western Governors Association. Previous sessions dealt with the impact of the drought on agriculture, the energy industry and on commercial sectors like mining and manufacturing.