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<br />""-t:eviewjournal.com -- News: Californians hail progress on water deal <br /> <br />Page 1 of2 <br /> <br />Ticket to Adventure <br />Show Tickets <br />F fee Tours <br />Hoover-Dam <br />Grand Canyon <br />Click Here & Save <br /> <br />reviewjoumal.com <br /> <br />(i~ PRINTTHIS <br /> <br />Thursday, March 13,2003 <br />Copyright @Las Vegas Review-Journal <br /> <br />Californians hail progress on water deal <br /> <br />By KEITH ROGERS <br />REVIEW.JOURNAL <br /> <br />California officials said Wednesday they have reached a "major milestone" toward agreement on a historic <br />15-year plan that eventually would restore Nevada's access to surplus water from the Colorado River. <br /> <br />However, Assistant Interior Secretary Bennett Raley stopped short of saying the tentative deal by four <br />Southern California water agencies to wean the state off its dependence on surplus water from the river <br />would be finalized by the end of the year. <br /> <br />The California water deal will be presented today at a closed-door meeting in Las Vegas to representatives <br />from six other Colorado River basin states. <br /> <br />Raley, in a teleconference call late Wednesday, said a 51-page legal document about the agreement <br />indicates "there have been material gains made since Dec. 31, but I also don't want to understate the <br />importance of some of those unresolved issues." <br /> <br />He declined to identify those issues or to speculate on the chances that a pact would be in place and <br />approved by his agency in time to resume surplus water withdrawals by the end of this year. <br /> <br />Surplus water is an extra supply that, when available, Nevada and California may draw in addition to their <br />normal allocations. In the past, Nevada has taken more than 30,000 acre-feet in extra water annually, storing <br />some of it in underground aquifers. Surplus is especially important to Nevada now that it is using its full <br />allocation from the river, the chief source of supply to Southern Nevada. <br /> <br />Historically, California has taken as much as 800,000 acre-feet per year in addition to its allocation of 4.4 <br />million acre-feet. <br /> <br />Interior Secretary Gale Norton put an indefinite hold on all surplus withdrawals from the river when the <br />California agencies failed to agree on a 15-year plan known as the Quantification Settlement Agreement by <br />a Dec. 31 deadline. <br /> <br />During the teleconference, California Gov. Gray Davis lauded the cooperation of the four urban and <br />agricultural water districts that led to completion ofthe tentative agreement. "I think this is.a major <br />milestone in the history of California water. ... This is an enormously important step," he said. <br /> <br />http://reviewjoumal.printthis.clickability.comlpt/cpt?action=cpt&expire=&urIID=5683458&fb... 3/13/2003 <br />