Grounded leadership needed in region brimming with water tensions – Las Vegas Sun

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.

Tuesday, June 15, 2021 | 2 a.m.

As the Southwest prepares for whats forecast to be another mercilessly hot and dry summer, tensions over water scarcity are rising like the mercury.

Farmers are facing bleak growing seasons and the possibility of farm failures in several areas due to cutbacks in water allocations for irrigation, creating friction between the ag community and cities on the dwindling water supply in the region. Rural communities in Nevada and elsewhere, already wary of incursions by urban areas into their water supplies, are on high alert as the water crisis deepens.

The crisis threatens interstate relations and even international relations as the Sierra watershed and Rockies watershed fueling the Colorado River feed multiple states and, in the Colorados case, Mexico too. This pits those states against one another Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico and California and could embroil Mexico as well.

And all the while, the water supply keeps dwindling. Lake Mead reached a historic low elevation last week of 1,071.53 feet, the lowest the reservoir has been since it was filled in the 1930s. The culprit: Paltry runoff into the Colorado River, brought on by climate change that has disrupted weather patterns and this year left the Rockies with below-average snowpack.

With no relief in sight, its time for national leaders to take action. Whats needed is the formation of a presidential commission, a special congressional commission or a similar panel on Western water issues.

The situation is nearing a flashpoint. When the federal Bureau of Reclamation announced last month that the drought had forced record-low allocations to farmers in the Klamath River Basin in Oregon and California, the announcement sparked protests at the irrigation districts administrative office that attracted members of a far-right militia network. The water scarcity there has widened fault lines between ag producers in the region and Indigenous Americans and environmentalists who are fighting to maintain minimum water levels to preserve salmon and endangered fish.

I think that the majority of people understand that acts of violence and protest (arent) going to be productive, but at the same time people down here are being backed into a corner, said Ben DuVal, a farmer and president of the Klamath Water Users Association, told Al Jazeera. Theres a lot of farms that need a good stable year this year myself included and were not going to get that this year. Im questioning the future.

When people are making statements like this, its time for Congress and/or the White House to react.

The situation also calls for new local and state leaders to redouble their efforts.

Nevada has provided strong leadership on water conservation and water use over the years, thanks in lions share to the Southern Nevada Water Authority and its extraordinary former leader, Pat Mulroy.

Our region has made enormous strides in stewarding the water supply, through our practice of treating and recycling our waste water, the SNWAs residential cash-for-turf program and, most recently, the first-in-the-nation bill approved by state lawmakers this spring to ban ornamental grass. Thanks to those and other conservation methods, Nevada uses significantly less water than were allotted from the Colorado River. Our usage is currently about 250,000 acre-feet, and our current allotment is 292,000.Weve also banked something like 2 million acre-feet of water by using less than our share over the years, giving us an on-paper water reserve that will serve as good leverage for future negotiations and further encourages conservation by not subjecting us to a wasteful use it or lose it approach to water rights.

Credit for this falls largely to Mulroy, who, as leader of the SNWA for 25 years beginning in 1989, served as the lead architect for Nevadas water policies. She remains a principal expert in regional and national water issues.

But were trapped in a drought so intense and lengthy that some say it shouldnt be referred to as a drought at all, but as the norm. We have to face the possibility that the decades when Lake Mead was filled to the brim are behind us now, and that climate change has altered the picture for the foreseeable future. Coupled with an increasing demand for water, its now a rare year when the Colorado River flow goes all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

Nevada has done a great deal to adapt to the crisis, but we must do more. A key need is to develop a sufficient whole of Nevada effort to address rural communities concerns while continuing to provide adequate water to Las Vegas, the states economic engine, and the states other cities.

Meanwhile, heres a show of encouragement for the people working to fill Mulroys shoes as our states next-generation regional leaders on water issues. Nevada needs you.

In the near-term, however, national action is needed through the formation of a special commission. With tensions running high and threatening to boil over, theres no time to waste in addressing the issues.

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Grounded leadership needed in region brimming with water tensions - Las Vegas Sun