Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Lake Powell release rests with interior secretary

Gale Norton The interior secretary must decide whether to go ahead with the usual water release

Interior Secretary Gale Norton is guaranteed to disappoint someone when she decides how water from the Colorado River will be divided over the next six months.

Officials from the seven Western states that share the Colorado met Tuesday in Las Vegas but could reach no consensus about the best way to use water from the river basin's first wet winter in five years.

Representatives from the Lower Colorado River Basin states of Nevada, Arizona and California continued to argue that enough water is available to meet present obligations, while upper basin officials from Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming stood by their call to reduce the amount of water released to the lower basin from Lake Powell.

Norton must settle the matter, and her decision is expected to come as early as Friday.

At issue is whether the upper basin states can withhold some of the 8.23 million acre-feet of water they normally release to the lower basin, where the unusually wet winter could more than double the normal amount of water that flows into the Colorado River from tributaries below Lake Powell.

Water use on the river is planned on an annual basis, but last year, federal officials agreed to hold a midyear review in April in case the drought started to jeopardize water deliveries or power generation on the Colorado.

The crisis has not materialized, said Kay Brothers, deputy general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority.

Drought conditions detailed at Tuesday's meeting showed that unusually wet weather since August has transformed the U.S. Department of Agriculture's drought monitor map of the Colorado River Basin.

Gone are the patches of bright red and orange denoting areas of extreme and severe drought. In their place are tan islands of moderate drought surrounded by yellow areas that rank only as abnormally dry.

"Is the drought over? No. Is it easing? Yes," said Tom Ryan, a regional hydrologist for the federal Bureau of Reclamation.

The total amount of water stored on the Colorado is expected to grow by 7 percent this year, erasing a 7 percent decline in storage in 2004. "So essentially we've rolled back one year of the drought," Ryan said.

With no pressing water emergency to address, Brothers said, no compelling reason exists to change this year's operating plan for the river, which calls for the traditional 8.23 million acre-feet release from Lake Powell. "That was the whole purpose of the midyear review," Brothers said.

An acre-foot equals about 325,851 gallons, roughly the amount of water used by the average Las Vegas Valley household every 17 months.

Officials on both sides of the Lake Powell debate, Brothers included, declined to predict what Norton might do after Tuesday's meeting.

Jim Davenport, water division chief for Nevada's Colorado River Commission, said he hopes the recent air of cooperation among Colorado River users is not over.

"I hope whatever happens, the states remain in accord," Davenport said.