Editorial: Californians break 'water war' cease-fire

Tensions have risen again among those states that rely on the Colorado River for their water supplies. In the latest chapter of this long-running saga, California ranchers and farmers are proposing to get more water from the Colorado River. The net effect of this proposal would be to reduce the water levels by as much as 120 feet in Lake Mead in Nevada and Lake Powell, which straddles the Utah-Arizona border.

As the Sun's Mary Manning reported Friday, this understandably has been greeted with alarm here. Not only would this plan pollute the water in Lake Mead, which is Southern Nevada's principal source of drinking water, but it also could harm the recreational uses of Lake Mead that are popular with boaters, fishermen and swimmers.

It was only two months ago that water agencies in California agreed on a plan to live within their annual share of the Colorado River. This was a promising sign that was well received by Nevada and other Western states, but an insistence on draining Lake Mead to dangerously low levels will result in animosity again.

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