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Water pact could help Lake Mead
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LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Federal officials are wrapping up negotiations with Mexico on a water deal that could provide a much-needed boost to Lake Mead.
In a speech on Friday in Las Vegas , Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he will travel to Mexico on Sunday to discuss the international water agreement and other issues. "We have high hopes. We'll know more within a very few short days," he said.
The details have not been finalized, but the concept is for Mexico to store some of its Colorado River allocation in Lake Mead for use in future years, temporarily lifting the water level in the drought-stricken reservoir.
Right now, Mexico can't take its full share of water from the river because of a 7.2 magnitude quake that struck Mexicali on April 4, damaging canals and reservoirs that supply the vast agricultural area just south of the California border.
Salazar said the expected agreement with Mexico would benefit the U.S. by keeping additional water in storage "so we can help address lake levels at Lake Mead."
The surface of the reservoir has dropped 130 vertical feet since drought took hold on the Colorado River in 1999. If the lake falls another 9 feet, it will trigger the first-ever shortage declaration on the river that supplies water and power to about 25 million people across the West.
Under shortage rules, Nevada and Arizona would be forced to reduce their combined use by 400,000 acre-feet a year. Nevada's share of those cuts would start at 13,000 acre-feet and increase incrementally as Lake Mead continues to drop. One acre-foot of water is enough to supply two average Las Vegas Valley homes for a year. Nevada gets 300,000 acre-feet of Colorado River water annually, one-fifth of Mexico's allocation.
Local water managers worry that Lake Mead will drop far enough to shut down one of the two intake pipes that supply the Las Vegas Valley with about 90 percent of its drinking water.
"Obviously it's a priority to keep Lake Mead levels as high as possible," said Scott Huntley, spokesman for the Southern Nevada Water Authority. "Keeping those lake levels up is a top priority."
Salazar spoke about the negotiations with Mexico during the annual conference of the Colorado River Water Users Association, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization of stakeholders that holds its annual convention at Caesars Palace.
The secretary of the interior often delivers the keynote address at the association's convention. In recent years, those speeches have focused on cooperation among the seven Western states that share the river, and Salazar did not stray from that theme.
He said the last 11 years have been the driest in 102 years on record for the Colorado River Basin, and tree-ring analysis suggests this might be the most serve dry spell in a thousand years. Only by working together can water users make it through this drought and the emerging challenges posed by what Salazar called "the reality of climate change."
"We must not re-create those water wars of the last century," he said. "I think everyone here will agree the road of cooperation is the preferable one to take."
Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350.
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Invade Mexico! They suckin Lake Mead up!
Send Sharron Angle to Mexico to make a deal, that should take care of this mess, you betcha..
POLITICS STICK HERE. If Mexico is UNABLE to take the water why are we pretending they are doing something for us? Why on earth do we offer them future use of OUR WATER to make up for what they CANNOT USE NOW????
CynicalObserver. According to national studies and averages, the typical household nation wide uses 0.3 acre foot/year if that helps. Since we are warmer here in the west that number should be a bit higher so 0.5 would make sense for Nevada. Easter states drop below the 0.3 acre foot/year norm.
"One acre-foot of water is enough to supply two average Las Vegas Valley homes for a year."
I'd like to see the statistical proof on this one. In California, the pro-development water agencies say "One acre-foot of water is enough to supply one average family for a year." And when they say that they are lying, because average water usage by an average family in California is more like 1-1/4 acre foot per year. So Southern Nevada Water Authority is peddling a story that the average Las Vegas family uses less than half of the water used by an average California family. Hmmmm.....b.s. detector going off.
We have enough illegal aliens here. Lets keep all their water until they (mexican gov.) pay back the services the people suck out of the system here.
YOU ARE GOING TO STORE MEXICOS WATER ?? ARE YOU WAITING FOR THEM TO MAKE IT UP HERE AND GIVE IT TO THEM THEN OR WHAT
IF YOU SHUT THE WATER OFF LEAVING THE DAM THE LAKE WOULD FILL ITS SELF .TO HELL W CALIFORNIA.ARIZONA AND MEXICO .OUR LAKE PROBLEM WOULD GO AWAY
THE ONLY THING THAT WELL HELP THE LAKE IS KEEP GROWTH VERY LOW TILL THE LAKE COMES BACK IF IT EVER WILL..............WE HAD A HELL OF A CONSTRUCTION RIDE AND ITS OVER..........THE VALLEY STILL RETAINS THE 'PLAY GROUND IMAGE' ALL ELSE IS ON HOLD TILL THINGS CHANGE........
The point the article makes about this potentially being the driest period in a thousand years suggests that it may be the driest since the collapse of the Anasazi, which was about a thousand years ago. If I remember correctly, THAT drought is thought to have lasted several decades, if not several centuries. Get used to it - droughts like these DO happen. They are NOT always government conspiracies perpetrated by evil leftist, liberal progressives intent on overthrowing the Constitution.