We could buy water from farmers

Tom Keller, Henderson

Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012 | 2:02 a.m.

In his Wednesday column, J. Patrick Coolican laments the fact that the bills have come due for unnecessary infrastructure investments made for future growth in the valley. Just like the housing bubble, it turned out that assuming unending growth was a foolish bet.

Now water users are going to have to pay $5 a month for infrastructure projects, mostly the new $300 million Lake Mead intake. On that basis, the water authority’s proposed $10 billion water pipeline would cost $165 a month per user.

To supply future water needs, we need to buy some of the Colorado River water now allocated for growing alfalfa and cotton in the desert. Los Angeles is already paying Imperial Valley farmers about $100 per acre-foot, or 30 cents per 1,000 gallons, for their water. There is no need to build expensive desalination plants and water pipelines or dry up northern Nevada valleys when we can just pay farmers in Arizona and California to not grow their crops.