Spider
04-03-2005, 10:02 AM
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2005/Mar-31-Thu-2005/news/26170022.html
The seven Western states that depend on water from the Colorado River will not have a drought management proposal in hand by the Friday deadline set by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Nevada's top water official said.
No such proposal has been developed and representatives from the seven states are not slated to meet again until next week, said Pat Mulroy, general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority.
"I don't think we are any closer than we were," Mulroy said. "I think we're going to need more time."
In December, Deputy Interior Secretary Steven Griles called on the states to accelerate discussions on how they would divide up a shortage on the drought-stricken river. Griles used the same news conference at the Las Vegas convention of the Colorado River Water Users Association to announce the April 1 deadline.
Federal officials have never declared a water shortage on the Colorado, and no rules presently exist that spell out how the river allocations of Nevada and the six other states would be cut in the event of such a declaration.
Some experts were predicting that a shortage could be declared as early as 2006, but Mulroy said this year's record wet winter appears to have bought river users some time.
Most pressing now, she said, is for the states to reach a consensus about how much water to release from Lake Powell this year.
The upper basin states of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming want to reduce the 8.23 million acre-feet of water that traditionally is released from Powell each year to allow the lake to recover, Mulroy said.
Five years of drought, coupled with normal water deliveries downstream to Nevada, Arizona and California, have caused Lake Powell to shrink to about one-third of its capacity.
Mulroy said Nevada is agreeable to a reduced release from Powell, so long as the resulting drop in Lake Mead does not jeopardize the intakes Southern Nevada uses to draw about 90 percent of its drinking water supply from the lake.
Mulroy expects the states to agree on a preferred release from Powell by mid-April, before federal officials conduct their midyear review of the 2005 Annual Operating Plan for the Colorado River.
But complicating the interstate discussions is the weather. "Nobody knows if this is the end of a dry cycle or just a wet year in the middle of the cycle," Mulroy said.
As for the larger task of developing shortage criteria for the river, Mulroy predicted the process will take at least two years, with or without input from the basin states. "It's pretty academic. If the states don't do it, the (Interior) secretary will," she said.
Mulroy has said that Nevada's share of a shortage probably will be 12,000 to 18,000 acre-feet a year, though the state would be able to replace that lost supply with banked water here or from its recent water agreement with Arizona.
There are about 326,000 gallons in an acre-foot. The average Las Vegas Valley household uses slightly more than two-thirds of an acre-foot of water each year.
"Nobody wants to tackle these ugly issues until they absolutely have to," Mulroy said. "But the possibility of the lower basin going into a shortage within two years is real."
That's why the Interior Department came up with the April 1 deadline: to push the states into talks on shortage criteria, Mulroy said.
"And quite honestly, we're going to push back. I still want to know what, if anything, the federal government is doing to engage Mexico on shortage criteria. There is no way Arizona and Nevada can bear the brunt" of a shortage if Mexico doesn't take a hit, she said.
Under the terms of a 1944 treaty, the United States is obligated to allow 1.5 million acre-feet of Colorado River water to flow into Mexico each year. However, that obligation is not governed by the 1922 Colorado River Compact or subsequent federal laws that divvy up the river among the seven states.
Mulroy and her fellow basin-states representatives are slated to meet behind closed doors in Las Vegas on Monday.
The seven Western states that depend on water from the Colorado River will not have a drought management proposal in hand by the Friday deadline set by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Nevada's top water official said.
No such proposal has been developed and representatives from the seven states are not slated to meet again until next week, said Pat Mulroy, general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority.
"I don't think we are any closer than we were," Mulroy said. "I think we're going to need more time."
In December, Deputy Interior Secretary Steven Griles called on the states to accelerate discussions on how they would divide up a shortage on the drought-stricken river. Griles used the same news conference at the Las Vegas convention of the Colorado River Water Users Association to announce the April 1 deadline.
Federal officials have never declared a water shortage on the Colorado, and no rules presently exist that spell out how the river allocations of Nevada and the six other states would be cut in the event of such a declaration.
Some experts were predicting that a shortage could be declared as early as 2006, but Mulroy said this year's record wet winter appears to have bought river users some time.
Most pressing now, she said, is for the states to reach a consensus about how much water to release from Lake Powell this year.
The upper basin states of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming want to reduce the 8.23 million acre-feet of water that traditionally is released from Powell each year to allow the lake to recover, Mulroy said.
Five years of drought, coupled with normal water deliveries downstream to Nevada, Arizona and California, have caused Lake Powell to shrink to about one-third of its capacity.
Mulroy said Nevada is agreeable to a reduced release from Powell, so long as the resulting drop in Lake Mead does not jeopardize the intakes Southern Nevada uses to draw about 90 percent of its drinking water supply from the lake.
Mulroy expects the states to agree on a preferred release from Powell by mid-April, before federal officials conduct their midyear review of the 2005 Annual Operating Plan for the Colorado River.
But complicating the interstate discussions is the weather. "Nobody knows if this is the end of a dry cycle or just a wet year in the middle of the cycle," Mulroy said.
As for the larger task of developing shortage criteria for the river, Mulroy predicted the process will take at least two years, with or without input from the basin states. "It's pretty academic. If the states don't do it, the (Interior) secretary will," she said.
Mulroy has said that Nevada's share of a shortage probably will be 12,000 to 18,000 acre-feet a year, though the state would be able to replace that lost supply with banked water here or from its recent water agreement with Arizona.
There are about 326,000 gallons in an acre-foot. The average Las Vegas Valley household uses slightly more than two-thirds of an acre-foot of water each year.
"Nobody wants to tackle these ugly issues until they absolutely have to," Mulroy said. "But the possibility of the lower basin going into a shortage within two years is real."
That's why the Interior Department came up with the April 1 deadline: to push the states into talks on shortage criteria, Mulroy said.
"And quite honestly, we're going to push back. I still want to know what, if anything, the federal government is doing to engage Mexico on shortage criteria. There is no way Arizona and Nevada can bear the brunt" of a shortage if Mexico doesn't take a hit, she said.
Under the terms of a 1944 treaty, the United States is obligated to allow 1.5 million acre-feet of Colorado River water to flow into Mexico each year. However, that obligation is not governed by the 1922 Colorado River Compact or subsequent federal laws that divvy up the river among the seven states.
Mulroy and her fellow basin-states representatives are slated to meet behind closed doors in Las Vegas on Monday.