Southwest Hydrology: The Resource of Semi-Arid Hydrology Volume 4 Number 2

• Description: Southwest Hydrology: The Resource of Semi-Arid Hydrology Volume 4 Number 2
• State: CO
• Date: 3/1/2005
• Title: Southwest Hydrology: The Resource of Semi-Arid Hydrology Volume 4 Number 2
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Publication

The current Adequate Supply Program,
intended as a consumer protection
measure for home buyers outside AMAs,
was deemed ineffective and in need of
replacement by the far more stringent
100 -Year Assured Supply requirements
of AMAs. Currently, rural counties have
no authority to deny new developments
on the basis of inadequate water supplies;
however, granting such authority is the
goal of recently introduced legislation.
Nevada and Arizona Reach
Water Banking Agreement
The Southern Nevada Water Authority
and the Arizona Water Banking Authority
reached a historic agreement in December
that will guarantee 1.25 million acre -feet
of Colorado River water to Nevada in
exchange for $330 million to Arizona.
The deal also ensures Nevada's support
of Arizona's efforts to change existing
priority status rules, which give Arizona
junior rights status for Colorado River
water. Under current rules, if drought were
to severely limit Colorado River flows,
Arizona would be required to give up the
Colorado River water it uses in the Central
Arizona Project to supply water to Phoenix
and Tucson, before any other state would
have to cut its water use. Nevada has now
pledged in writing to support equal sharing
of shortages among states.
Under the agreement, Nevada will pay
$100 million in 2005 and $23 million a
year for ten years beginning in 2009 for
the river water, plus any additional costs.
The state will be allowed to withdraw
from Lake Mead an annual amount,
beginning with 20,000 acre -feet in 2007
and increasing to 40,000 acre -feet per year
starting in 2010, until the full allocation is
withdrawn. Nevada would have until 2060
to withdraw the total amount.
Arizona has been unable to use its full
annual allocation of 2.8 million acre -
feet of Colorado River water, and since
1996 has banked its unused allotment
in groundwater aquifers. According to
the Arizona Daily Sun, Herb Guenther,
director of the Arizona Department of
Water Resources, believes Arizona will
benefit from the agreement not only
because it will reduce costs of banking
unused water, but also because it will
ensure Arizona's share in future years.
Under current law, if California becomes
dependent on the excess water it receives,
Congress could opt to permanently reduce
Arizona's allocation.
Visit wwwawba.state.az.us, www.sitwa.com,
www.cap- az..com, and wwwazdailysun.com.
Nevada Acquires Land,
WaterAccess
Late last year, President Bush signed the
Lincoln County [Nevada] Conservation,
Recreation, and Development Act of 2004,
establishing both vast wilderness areas and
access for a proposed water pipeline, in
a compromise between environmentalists
and developers. Lincoln County is north
of Las Vegas, and is one of the least -
populated counties of the state, according
to an article in the Los Angeles Times.
Among the provisions of the bill, reported
the Times, are the sale of 90,000 acres
of public land for private development,
the establishment of 768,000 acres of
wilderness for 14 new wilderness areas,
and "rent -free rights of way across federal
land for a massive proposed pipeline
system that would carry groundwater from
rural Nevada to the Las Vegas area."
Nevada Rep. Jim Gibbons praised the
new opportunities it would provide
for economic development, recreation,
and tourism in Lincoln County, and a
representative of the Wilderness Society
noted that, while the bill isn't everything
they'd hoped for, the areas that will now
be protected are "extremely significant,"
said the article. On the other hand,
criticism came from the Western Land
Exchange Project, which argued that
the bill will damage the landscape by
promoting privatization where there is
no demand and by permitting pipeline
construction, reported the Times.
According to the newspaper, the pipeline
easements will remove some obstacles
to Southern Nevada Water Authority's
interest in pumping groundwater from
Lincoln County for transport to Las Vegas,
but the agency will still have to comply
with federal environmental reviews and
state groundwater protection laws. The bill
includes $6 million from Las Vegas land
sales to fund a groundwater study.
Visit www.latimes.com.
Enviros Become Farmers in NM
The Las Cruces -based Southwest
Environment Center (SEC) has decided to
start farming to pursue the organization's
goal of restoring Rio Grande riparian
health, according to an Associated Press
story in the Albuquerque Journal. The
group wants to become a constituent of the
Elephant Butte Irrigation District (EBIW),
which requires its members to own more
than two acres of land and develop a crop.
The SEC hopes to buy a 15 -acre parcel
and 7 acre -feet per year of irrigation
district water rights from a private
landowner, and will consider cottonwoods
and wetlands —food for wildlife rather
than people —as their crop, said the article.
The SEC has a history of opposing farmers
over issues regarding management of
Rio Grande water and its natural habitat,
but unlike other groups who have sued
to accomplish the same goal, the SEC is
trying to work within the system, reported
AP. According to the article, the targeted
parcel already supports cottonwood and
willow trees, and the group may grow
organic agricultural crops as well. The
center is working to raise the $200,000
purchase price of the land.
At a November meeting, the EBIW board
stopped short of publicly endorsing the
proposal by the SEC, according to AP,
but one board member did concede that
such actions are what the district has
"encouraged the environmental community
to do for years."
Visit wwwabgjournal.com.
March /April 2005 • Southwest Hydrology • 13