Two competing proposals to achieve federally mandated cuts to Colorado River water use are on the table, but agreement between states has remained elusive.
Colton Lochhead
Former Reporter
While states continue to negotiate over how to cut back on Colorado River water use, the Southern Nevada Water Authority is preparing for a “worst-case scenario.”
The mountains that feed the Colorado River already have seen more snow this winter than they normally would through an entire snow season.
Tens of thousands of private well owners across parts of Nevada, California and Utah might be drinking water that contains unhealthy levels of arsenic, according to a new study from Desert Research Institute.
A Nevada assemblywoman introduced a bill this week that would prohibit restaurants from automatically serving water to customers.
In the latest Conservation in the West Poll, low river levels was ranked as the most serious concern by Nevadans, ahead concerns over the rising costs of living and gas prices.
The Center for Biological Diversity argues that the state constitution prohibits former state Sen. James Settelmeyer, R-Minden, from holding a state job so soon after his term ended.
The pipeline supplies gasoline, diesel and jet fuel to locations throughout California and Nevada, including Las Vegas.
Park officials say that a drier-than-normal fall and winter has dampened expectations for any big showing of flowers this year.
One of the Colorado River’s two major reservoirs is expected to collect better than average runoff this year, thanks to an unusually wet La Niña pattern that dropped a deluge of snow up and down the basin.
California has submitted its own plan for cuts to conserve water along the drought-stricken Colorado River, but its plan differs from one submitted by the six other states that also draw water from the river.
Six out of seven Colorado River basin states have settled on a proposed set of cuts aimed at saving the crumbling river system and preventing Lake Mead and Lake Powell from crashing — with one very notable state missing from the agreement.
A federal deadline to make cuts in water use from Lake Mead, Lake Powell and the rest of the Colorado River hits next week.
While not enough to fend off the falling water levels entirely, the snow that has dropped in recent weeks across the mountains that feed the river is expected to slow the decline at Lake Mead.
The Democratic-controlled Legislature may have to compromise on environmental priorities after Republican Joe Lombardo defeated former Gov. Steve Sisolak.