Mulroy, Patricia

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Colorado Law

University of Colorado Law School Colorado Law Scholarly Commons Water Organizations in a Changing West (Summer Conference, June 14-16) 1993 6-15-1993 Strategies for Acquiring New Urban Water Supplies Patricia Mulroy Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.law.colorado.edu/water-organizations-in-changing-west  Part of the Hydrology Commons, Natural Resources and Conservation Commons, Natural Resources Law Commons, Natural Resources Management and Policy Commons, State and Local Government Law Commons, Urban Studies and Planning Commons, Water Law Commons, and the Water Resource Management Commons Citation Information Mulroy, Patricia, "Strategies for Acquiring New Urban Water Supplies" (1993). Water Organizations in a Changing West (Summer Conference, June 14-16). https://scholar.law.colorado.edu/water-organizations-in-changing-west/21 Reproduced with permission of the Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy, and the Environment (formerly the Natural Resources Law Center) at the University of Colorado Law School.     Patricia Mulroy, Strategies for Acquiring New Urban Water Supplies, in WATER ORGANIZATIONS IN A CHANGING WEST (Natural Res. Law Ctr., Univ. of Colo. Sch. of Law 1993).  Reproduced with permission of the Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy, and the Environment (formerly the Natural Resources Law Center) at the University of Colorado Law School.  STRATEGIES FOR ACQUIRINGNEW URBAN WATER SUPPLIESPatricia MilroyGeneral ManagerLas Vegas Valley Water DistrictSouthern Nevada Water AuthorityWater Organisations in a Changing WestNatural Resources Law CenterUniversity of Colorado School of LawJune 14-16, 1993\CAI. INTRODUCTIONA. SummaryBeginning in the 19409 when it was the favorite playground forthe Hollywood greats, Las Vegas successfully built a reputation andan economy on painting the perfect illusion. A tourist could, andstill can, breakfast with the Romans, lunch in the Caribbean, lazeaway the afternoon with tigers and dolphins, dine at a medievaljoust, and finish off the evening at the circus. The names of LasVegas hotels are as well known in Tokyo and Madrid as they are inNew York and Chicago. Outside magazine recently asked thisquestion in reference to Nevada: "What happens when the last ofthe American frontier becomes just another state?" A similarquestion can be asked of Las Vegas: "What happens when the City ofIllusion becomes just another city?" Las Vegas has not just grown,it has significantly diversified its economic base. Thecombination of favorable climate, low taxes, employmentopportunities, and affordable retirement communities has temptedtens of thousands to relocate.Las Vegas has always had a steady rate of growth. However,between the years 1987 and 1990, growth skyrocketed to the pointwhere the region had almost exhausted its available water supply.New water had to be found in 1989, and must still be found today.The roadblocks to finding a new water supply for the area areinstitutional and legal -- not technical or financial. If the Westand its economy are changing, so must the institutions and lawsthat, because they are so rigid, allow no deviation from the statusquo. Therefore, strategies for acquiring additional watersupplies, particularly for southern Nevada, are non-conventionaland controversial. Southern Nevada has already taken a step in thedirection of the non-conventional with the creation of the SouthernNevada Water Authority, whose mission is regional water management.Only its creation has allowed the area to extend the time when itwill have exhausted its water supply from 1995 to 2013. Regionalwater management is the prerequisite if any water marketingstrategy is to succeed.1B. ReferencesWebster, Donovan, "Where the West Ends," Outside (March 	 /Th19931: 63-68, 162-167• White, William T., Thomas M. Carroll and R. Keith Schwer,"The Impact of a Water-Imposed Interruption of Growth inthe Las Vegas Region," prepared for the Las Vegas ValleyWater District byWilliamT. White Consulting Economists,November 1992II. LAS VEGAS GROWTHA. The Las Vegas Valley experienced an average annualpopulation growth of 5% from 1980 - 1986, representing anannual increase in water production of 4%.R. In 1987 - 1990, growth escalated to 8* annually. Waterproduction increased by an average of 9% 4 but went ashigh as 17%1 21%. This increase was due to thecompletion of 11,000 new hotel and motel rooms, as wellas new industry and increasing numbers of retireesrelocating to the area.rxx. TER REALITY OF A DIMINISHING WATER SUPPLY AND A STRATEGY FORSTRETCHING THE LOCAL SUPPLYA. Water and wastewater agencies in southern Nevada realizedthat the only way to stretch the existing supply wasthrough cooperation in lieu of competition.B. These agencies retained the firm of Water ResourcesManagement, Inc. (WREI) to develop an unbiased watermanagement model: for the region for the time period1990 - 2030. Relevant state and Federal agencies wereinvited to participate.1. Socioeconomic data for the period 1990 - 2030 wasdeveloped by the Center for Business and EconomicResearch, University of Nevada - Las Vegas.2. Water demand projections were developed from thatdata by Planning and Management Consultants, Ltd.C. WRNI's model showed three critical years for southernNevada:1. 1995 - existing municipal contracts for ColoradoRiver Water would be exhausted2. 2002 - Nevada's entire Colorado River allocationwould be exhausted without conservation3. 2006 - Nevada's entire Colorado River allocationwould be exhausted with conservationD. The water model made it clear that, to get beyond 1995,regional water management had to occur. Furthermore,although not all available water had been put to use, ithad been committed to prospective users, so all furtherwater commitments were halted until additional resourceswere secured.IV. CREATION OF THE SOUTHERN NEVADA WATER AUTHORITYA. The urgency for the creation of the Authority came fromthe need to obtain Nevada's final contract for ColoradoRiver water as quickly as possible and end the permitmoratorium. That contract was completely dependent onthe area generating sufficient wastewater return-flowcredits to the Colorado River, and only an entity capableof binding all water and wastewater agencies couldprovide the needed return guarantees.B. The Authority was created by the seven purveyor memberspursuant to Chapter 277 of the Nevada Revised Statutes,which allows local entities to form a joint agency andbestow upon it whatever powers they themselves have.C. The purposes of the Authority are:1. To contract for Nevada's Colorado River water;2. To manage water resources regionally, including ashared shortage agreement which equalized theplayers during drought;3. To mandate conservation;34. To allocate existing and future supplies among itswater purveyor members;5. To regulate wastewater reuse regionally to maximizeColorado River return-flow credits; and6. To develop new water sources for the benefit of allits members.D. Since its inception in 1991, the Authority has succeededin obtaining 98,000 acre-feet for southern Nevada,thereby stretching the area's water supply to the year2013. This was accomplished by solving intrastate watermanagement problems:1. The contract for Colorado River water (return-flowcredits) granted an additional 58,000 acre-feet.This exhausts Nevada's Colorado River entitlement.2. Under the agreement with Southern California Edison(SCE), operator of a power plant using ColoradoRiver water, the Authority and its members committo bank (through artificial recharge) 350,000 acre-feet of water to be used by SCE until 2026,allowing SCE to cancel its separate contract forColorado River water and surrender that permanentsupply (40,000 acre-feet) to the benefit of theAuthority.3. The Authority is negotiating with other NevadaColorado River contract holders to consolidateNevada's share with the Authority.V. CONSERVATIONConservation has become a reality in southern Nevada. In2 1/2 short years, a 6% reduction in use has been achieved. Theprogram includes:A. Ordinances and Building Codes1. Low volume plumbing fixtures2. Recycling for water features3. Ban on artificial lakes4	 (Th4. Landscape guidelines5. Lawn watering restrictions6. Codes, covenants and restrictions7. Turf site reductions (to be implemented this yearby municipalities)B. Enforcement Authority to Las Vegas Valley WaterDistrict/ "Water Cops"C. Water Rate Structure1. Promote water conservation2. Achieve equity in water pricing3. Avoid rate shock4. Maintain revenue stability5. Ensure growth pays for growthD. Facility Management1. Metering of construction water2. Rapid response leak detection3. Cast iron main replacement4. Meter maintenance5. High bill investigationsE. Public Education1. Changing Mind Set(a) Speaker's bureau(b) Workshops(c) Printed and audio/visual materials(d) Media campaign(e) "Water Awareness Month"(f) Youth education2. Improving Water Use Efficiency(a) Conservation hotline(b) Desert Demonstration Gardens(c) "Operation Desert Lawn"(d) Evapotranspiration rates(e) Site visits(f) "Challenge 2000"(g) Conservation awareness patrol5(h) Home water survey(i) Landscape irrigation audits 	 (-\F. Research and Studies1. Citizens task force2. Development of conservation measures3. Evapotranspiration ratesVI. FUTURE SOURCES OF SUPPLY FOR SODTEARN NEVADAA. Southern Nevada's problem in a nutshell is that, oncehaving put all its Colorado River water to municipal use,it must seek solutions outside its basin since there isno agricultural buffer for future Water transfers. Or,stated differently, there are no simple solutions. Thisreality puts in doubt the axiom of longtime Speaker ofthe House Tip O'Neill that "all politics are local,"since for southern Nevada any solution is at leaststatewide, regional, national.B. All options can be broken into two categories:1. Augmentation with distant yet currently unusedwaters, or2. Reallocation of existing uses.C. 'Augmentation1. Any development of new resources is politicallyextraordinarily difficult and environmentallyobjectionable, as we have learned through our in-state importation options. The reality is thatalthough those options are not a reallocation ofexisting beneficial uses in fact, they areperceived as such.2.. Distant out-of-state options are generating muchattention and, although some may be legitimate,each has many obstacles confronting it and solittle- political will behind it, that expendingmoney in their pursuit becomes a difficultexercise. These proposals include:6	 PTh(a) Diversions by pipeline from the PacificNorthwest or Canada (contrary to Federal law);(b) Distant, expensive and complicated desaltingand water exchange proposals (withenvironmental obstacles);(c) Delivery of Alaskan or Canadian water bytanker to California accompanied by thenecessary exchanges between southern Nevadaand southern California; and(d) Unused Upper Basin water (contrary to bistatecompact and "Law of the River").D. Reallocation1. Recently, solutions related to the Colorado Riverwere endorsed by the Secretary of the Interior whenhe, correctly in my view, pointed outS that theanswer to Las Vegas' supply problem "runs right byits own doorstep". He pledged to find marketmechanisms to help Las Vegas and other westerncities with their water supply needs.2. The big question is how to proceed. In myestimation, much of the same regional thinking thatunderlaid the creation of the Southern Nevada WaterAuthority finds application in the Lower ColoradoRiver Basin. Regional management is a prerequisitefor any marketing solutions to be successful.Regional management components include:(a) Creation of a Lower Basin-wide Commissionconsisting of representatives of Arizona,California and Nevada(b) A shared shortage agreement among Lower Basinstates to solve Arizona's Central ArizonaProject problem(c) Water banks in Lakes Mead and Powell(d) Interstate off-stream conservation storage(surface and groundwater banks)7(e) Salinity projects interfacing with newconservation options4. Water marketing, particularly in the Lower Basin,appears the most promising alternative, but is onlyfeasible when controlled by the state of origin toprotect third-party impacts.VII. ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES 07 MAINTAINING TIN STATUS QUOSouthern Nevada commissioned the preparation of an economicanalysis depicting the consequences of exhausting all watersupplies. It delineates dramatic unemployment, outmigrations,plummeting property values and skyrocketing property taxes. LasVegas has so much become a legitimate, multi-faceted anddiversified economy that maintaining gaming and tourism will notprotect the status quo. The same will happen to Lower ColoradoRiver Basin cities unless a new approach to management of theresource is found.

Strategies for Acquiring New Urban Water Supplies

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Strategies for Acquiring New Urban Water Supplies

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