Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

EDITORIAL:

All stakeholders in the West rely on one another for competent water management

Lake Mead

Richard Vogel / AP

This March 26, 2019, file photo, shows a bathtub ring of light minerals showing the high water mark of the reservoir which has shrunk to its lowest point on the Colorado River, as seen from the Hoover Dam, Ariz.

As the states and Native American tribes that share water from the Colorado River prepare to renegotiate how the water supply is allocated, the cardinal rule for these talks should involve conservation. Any state that shows up at the table without a plan to staunchly conserve its existing water supply should be penalized, and any with robust conservation plans should be rewarded.

For too long, some states in the 100-year-old Colorado River Compact have treated their allocation as if the end of the drought is right around the corner and the flow of the river will return to normal.

That’s magical thinking. Western states must acknowledge that because of climate change, what we’re experiencing now isn’t a drought but rather a new man-made normal that will persist until significant progress is made toward reducing global warming.

This has created a very simple yet brutal equation: A paltry supply of water plus projected population growth in the region equals the need to be parsimonious about what little water is available. 

At issue now are interim water policies that the states in the compact agreed to in 2007. Those reservoir management guidelines, which for the first time acknowledged the possibility of chronic water shortages in the Colorado River basin, are set to expire in 2026 and need to be renegotiated.

This is where conservation should be king, and where aggressive efforts in places like Las Vegas and Tucson, Ariz., should serve as models for all communities in the basin moving forward.

The Las Vegas Valley has undergone a startling transformation in the past two-plus decades from a city with lots of lush grass lawns to one with abundant xeriscaping, courtesy of the Southern Nevada Water Authority’s turf rebate program. That initiative, which state lawmakers recently extended to ornamental turf, resulted in more than 200 million square feet of lawn being replaced with water-efficient landscaping, saving the community more than 150 billion gallons of water since it went into effect in 1999. Our region also was an early adopter of recycling our wastewater, another key need across the basin to ease the burden on the river, and we’re spreading the gospel by investing in a wastewater treatment facility in Southern California in return for a portion of the Colorado River water that will be saved by the project.

Tucson’s conservation measures include requirements for low-flow water fixtures in new residential and business construction, caps on the amount of water-intense landscaping in commercial and multifamily buildings, rebates for rainwater harvesting systems and water-saving appliances, and using a portion of its Colorado River water to recharge aquifers that then serve as a water bank.

Meanwhile, both Nevada and Arizona invested in research institutions for sustainability, including Nevada’s esteemed and highly specialized Desert Research Institute. And late last year, officials from Nevada, Arizona and California agreed to take less water from the river.

Far too many other users haven’t followed the leaders, however. They include our neighbors in Utah, who in recent years have paid lip service to conservation while pursuing pipeline projects that would feed the water-wasting communities of St. George and Cedar City in the southern part of the state. The St. George pipeline would suck out 86,000 acre-feet of water from Lake Powell per year — a huge amount for a community of 90,000 people, given that Nevada’s allocation from Lake Mead is 300,000 acre-feet. The Cedar City project would tap aquifers 70 miles away, despite a recent study showing that the city could meet its needs through conservation without building the pipeline.

The thinking behind projects like these is pure madness. For proof, all it takes is a glance at the water levels of Lake Mead and Lake Powell, which are running at record lows, and a look at any number of long-range climate forecasts calling for drier and hotter conditions in the West unless climate change is curbed.

Against this backdrop, negotiations of the 2007 guidelines have begun, but unfortunately have progressed very little thus far. With conditions worsening and with the clock ticking toward 2025, the players involved need to get cracking.

The process will move a step forward this week, when the Bureau of Reclamation is expected to issue a notice to begin a public participation process that is part of a required federal environmental review of the guidelines. In this so-called “scoping” stage of the process, the public can give input on what protections are needed.

There’s a long way to go from here, but conservation should be a centerpiece issue. The days of wasting water must end region-wide.