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. . for Colorado River -w-ater to bend the rules a little bit. It's signifi- cant and precedent-setting that both Cal- ifornia and Nevada now have water stored in Arizona." Eventually, Las Vegas hopes to use its growing muscle 10 enlarge thai crack and nearly double its supply from the Colorado River. Las Vegas is eagerly awaiting a proposal from the Arizona Department of Water Resources and the Central Arizona Water Conservation District thai might expand the program to "several million acre-feet," says Donnelly. BUI, he says, the water-banking program and the: Bureau of Reclamation's new rules for the lower Colorado River arc nol likely to provide alllhe water Las Vegas needs. Tbat will require negotiations with other Colorado River states. Those states are watching how the bureau's efforts "to leverage change" will help Mulroy's crusade. The 1922 Colorado River Compact was designed to protect the other six compact states < from the economic power of California. The protection was needed because, if money and population had been the only measure, all the Colorado River water would have quickly flowed to Southern California, rather than remain~ ing in Wyoming and Utah and Arizona to raise low-value crops like alfalfa and cotton. Not much has changed from 1922 to today. From the perspective of Utah or New Mexico or Wyoming, still awaiting further urbanization and industrializa- tion, watching their compact water flow off marginal farms and toward buyers in Las Vegas is no different than watcbing it flow to Los Angeles. Mulroy has not yel directly taken on the upper-basin states of Colorado, Wyoming. Utah and New Mexico. She says her immediate goal is 10 change how Ihe lower-basin states (California, Nevada 'and Arizona) apportion waler among themselves. She says that until Arizona, Nevada and Cali- fo ia have their house in order, it do.es..g" make sense to talk to the upper basin slates about water transfers. . . Arizona is her most obvious target, given the financial trouble of the Central Arizona Project. But California also uses an enormous amount of Colorado River water for agriculture. And even high. value crops in California can't compete witb urban uses when it comes to water. Mulroy laid out her strategy for negotiating with other lower basin states at recent hearings 'before the Nevada state engineer on tbe Southern Nevada Water Aulhority's applications for waler in the Virgin River (HeN, 12/14/92). This river originates in southwestern Utah, and flows through the northwestern cor- ner of Arizona and into Nevada, where it joins the Colorado River in Lake Mead. The Virgin River is not part of the Colorado River Compact or any other inter,. state agreement. Nevada, there. fore, claims that tbe Virgin's water is up for grabs by whoever can 'first develop it. On paper, the agency's develop- ment plans caU for building a dam and reservoir near Mesquite, Nev., and a pipeline to Las Vegas. Under the current law of the Colorado River, Mulroy says, Las Vegas must take the water before.it enters Lake Mead and becomes part of the Colorado River. But the Southern Nevada Water Authority doesn't really want to build the dam and pipeline just to fulfill that technicality. She says the agency would rather let the river flow into Lake Mead and take the water from there. Environ- men'lalists, who oppose the damage that dam, reservoir and pipeline would cause, also favor letting the water flow into lake Mead. That, however, would require loos- ening the "law of the river" to allow "wheeling" water through Lake Mead. And that is the prize that Las Vegas is really playing for, says Mulroy. "The Virgin is the linchpin to the rest of the Colorado River." Getting more water through Lake Mead, including water from the Virgin River, will require negotiations with Utah and Arizona, says Mulroy, and agreement from other states, especially California, which holds priority rights on the lower Colorado by virtue of a 1963 Supreme Court ruling. So far, officials in . those states have been reluctant to let Las Vegas push too far too fast. Mulroy says approval of the Virgin River applications for a dam and. pipeline, expected from the Nevada state engineer later this year, 'is a necessary s!ep to strengthen Nevada when it comes time to negotiate with the other states. Having united. her southern Nevada power base, having placated most of her opponents in state, and having found a common agenda with other urban centers and the Bureau of Reclamation, Mulroy is confident it can be done; "The preparatory pieces are in place," she says. "Now we'll push hard to move forward." She predicts that changes on the lower Colorado.will move quickly this year and negotiations with other states wiil get under way. Las Vegas will be a "driver" of change, she vows. But, she adds, the new water regime must be ready by the year 2000. "You can't take a community as thriving as this one and put a stop sign out th~re," Mulroy warns. "The train will run right over you." Opponents of southern Nevada's plan to import water from rural Nevada remain skeptical of Las Vegas's inten- tions. "We're all'for more water from the Colorado River," says Don de la Cruz, an organizer with the Nevada environ. mental group Citizen Alert. Keeping water in the Virgin River is the best way to protect it, he agrees. But as for Mulroy's offer to drop the rural groundwater applications, so far, he says, "that's just talk." - The talk, however, has won over many other opponents. Mulroy con. vinced towns along the Virgin River in Nevada to drop their protests of the Las Vegas applications by cutting them in on the water and offering them a seat on the Southern Nevada Water Authority. She got the Interior Department to drop protests by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service by promising that the agency would comply with all required feder;)1 studies and permits. And the remaining opponents of the Las Vegas groundwater importation plan - the rural counties and environmental- ists - support what the district wants: more water from the Colorado River so that the city doesn't drain 20,000 square miles of rural land in southeastern Neva. da. . K1tMlllerlUghthawk The HOQver Dam and Lake Mead near las'Vegas Jon Christensen is Great Basin regional reporter for High Country News, based in Reno, Nevada. To receive the Bureau of Reclama. lion's proposed changes in rules govern. ing the lower Colorado River due out in March, contact Robert Towles, Regional Director, Bureau of Reclamation, P.O. Kit MlllerlUghthawk Box 61470, Boulder City, NV 89006- 1470 (702/293-8411). High Country. News - February 21. 1994 - 13 The lakes of Las Vegas Development offers desert dwellers waterfront homes