Increase the water allotment

Richard Rychtarik, Las Vegas

Friday, Sept. 6, 2013 | 2:02 a.m.

Henry Soloway’s letter to the editor, “Make a water deal with California,” about paying California to desalinate sea water in return for an extra ration of water from the Colorado River, once again highlights old news.

This is a costly solution with never-ending maintenance and construction expenses that produces insufficient amounts of potable water. Many years ago, Bob Beers, then a state senator, had the best idea — at least for the next several decades. Buy the Colorado River water rights in Southern California to increase our Lake Mead water allotment. This is a one-time cost and preferable to spending $15 billion to run pipelines up to central Nevada.

It’s sad to think that we have millions of miles of oil and gas pipelines installed across America yet there is no local, regional or national infrastructure plan to capture and reallocate water to where it may be needed. Given no other choice, which option would you prefer: gas and oil, or water? Before you answer, understand that you can live about three days without water.