Saturday, Oct. 15, 2005 | 9:34 a.m.
About all anyone agrees on in Southern Nevada's water debate is this: Las Vegas is about tapped out.
The region's torrid pace of growth and a drought in the Colorado River region have sent Southern Nevada Water Authority officials looking for other sources of water.
Plans to pipe water from rural Nevada have already run into fierce opposition as have discussions to rework the agreements that divvy up the water from the Colorado River, the source of 90 percent of Las Vegas' drinking water.
"Anything we say and anything we put forward finds a long line of prestigious opponents," Water Authority General Manager Pat Mulroy said.
The dividing line in the water debate was clearly marked this week as environmentalists and water planners attended separate events in Las Vegas.
In a meeting Wednesday, Sierra Club members soundly rapped the Water Authority for looking to Lincoln, Nye and White Pine counties for water to allow future growth.
In a conference Thursday and Friday, water professionals said the need for water, exacerbated by years of drought affecting the Colorado River, has forced the Water Authority to look at pumping water from rural Nevada.
Local Sierra Club members discussed the need to cut indoor use of water and the possibility of curbing the nation-leading growth rate.
"Water sustains more than just humans, but our entire environment," said Rose Strickland, a nationally known activist from Reno.
She said the Water Authority's plans threaten the state's wilderness and argued that the agency hasn't answered basic questions about what the effects of pumping water from the rural counties will have on the environment.
"Should growth continue at the current rate? Should one area's growth entitle it to another area's water?" Strickland said. Fellow club members clearly felt the answer should be "no" to both questions.
Nevada water officials, who met with counterparts from California and Arizona at a symposium on the Colorado River at UNLV on Thursday and Friday, insist that the effect from pumping water from rural areas will be minimal and that other solutions aren't practical for now.
Mulroy said her agency is stuck between two groups of antagonists: those such as environmentalists who want the agency to seek more water from the Colorado River and abandon the plan to pump groundwater, and those from the other states who want the agency to stick to the limits of its river allotment.
Southern Nevada has to seek more water from places in the state and has to seek more water from the Colorado River in agreements with other states, Mulroy said. The amount of water states can take from the Colorado River was set 80 years ago, long before anyone envisioned the Southern Nevada of today.
"We see a realignment and a rethinking of the whole concept of the law of the river," Mulroy said. "Does that in any way negate the necessity for Nevada to develop its own groundwater resources?"
The answer is no because of the threat to the river illustrated by five years of drought, she said.
"If Southern Nevada all of the sudden sucked air (from water intakes in Lake Mead) the consequences in this community would be dire," she said. "There has to be a way to bring water into this community that is separate and distinct from the Colorado River."
Water Authority officials have told consumers that cutting indoor use of water would not save a significant amount of water because the region already recycles water used indoors through Lake Mead.
The region's political leadership and the water officials who work for them also have soundly rejected calls for curbing the region's growth rate.
Ken Albright, Water Authority resource director, said Southern Nevada consumers have done an amazing job of trimming their water use, but one problem remains: the Colorado River.
"This reliance on Colorado River water has really put us in a precarious position," he said. "We need to diversify."
Plans to tap groundwater in rural parts of Nevada should cut that reliance from 90 percent today to 60 percent by 2050, he said. Albright will have to overcome resistance from a formidable group that includes government leaders from Central Nevada, especially White Pine County; urban environmentalists; ranchers; city dwellers; and rural families.
Strickland suggested a few options for the Water Authority: More conservation, buying water from agricultural users downstream on the Colorado River, desalination of ocean water.
George Caan, executive director of the Colorado River Commission, the Water Authority's sister agency in negotiations with other states, did not disagree with one point made by Strickland and other environmentalists.
"We continue to see an ever-increasing population," Caan said of Southern Nevada, which annually adds about 75,000 people. "It is putting an incredible stress on the natural environment."
Launce Rake can be reached at 259-4127 or at [email protected].
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