Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Nevada supports efforts to block water lawsuit

Mexico, conservationists fight canal work

As promised, Nevada water officials have joined the side of the federal government in a lawsuit that seeks to block improvements to an 80-mile canal from the Colorado River to farms in Southern California.

U.S. District Judge Kent Dawson on Monday approved Nevada's request to intervene in the civil lawsuit, after plaintiffs in the case did not oppose the motion. And on Tuesday, Nevada got some company.

Arizona's largest water supplier, the Central Arizona Water Conservation District, has filed to side with the defense in the lawsuit, again without objection from the plaintiffs.

Conservationists in the United States and farming interests in Mexicali, Mexico, are suing the Department of Interior and Bureau of Reclamation over plans to rebuild a portion of the All-American Canal in California to stop water from seeping across the U.S.-Mexico border.

Desert Citizens Against Pollution, Citizens United for Resources and the Environment, and Mexicali's economic development council claim farmers and wildlife south of the border depend on the seepage, which flows into an underground aquifer that is pumped to irrigate crops in the Mexicali Valley.

The Southern Nevada Water Authority and the Colorado River Commission, which jointly represent Nevada on water and power-generation issues along the river, support improvements to the canal. They say the water saved will help California live within its share of the Colorado River. Water officials in Arizona want to join the fight for the same reason.

"This is self-interest, just like everybody else," said Robert Barrett, spokesman for the Central Arizona Water Conservation District. "Conceivably, if the California folks can't get their water from lining the canal, they're going to come looking for it somewhere."

The All-American Canal was built in 1928 to supply Colorado River water to the Imperial Valley, where it is used to irrigate more than 700 square miles of cropland.

An estimated 67,000 acre-feet of water a year would be saved by rebuilding a leaky, 23-mile stretch of the canal. That water, enough to supply about 130,000 households, would go to San Diego for municipal use.

Nevada receives the smallest share of Colorado River water but depends on it more than any other state. About 90 percent of the Las Vegas Valley's drinking water supply comes from the river by way of Lake Mead.

John Entsminger, deputy counsel for the Southern Nevada Water Authority, said he expects the federal government to file a motion to dismiss the lawsuit before the Sept. 20 deadline. The water authority might file one, too.

"I think we'll look real hard at it," Entsminger said. "Once you've intervened in the case ... you have full rights to participate."