Water Summit highlights Nevada leadership on Colorado River issues

LAS VEGAS ( KLAS ) — With a continuing water shortage looming, officials met Wednesday to talk about progress on conservation and success in securing federal funding for infrastructure in Southern Nevada.

U.S. Rep. Susie Lee (D-Nev.) hosted the 2024 Water Summit at Springs Preserve, an event that highlighted Nevada’s role as a leader in decisions that guide management of the Colorado River.

John Entsminger, general manager at the Southern Nevada Water Authority, played a major role in crafting an agreement to save 3 million acre feet of water, answering the alarm sounded in 2022 before the federal government officially declared a water shortage.

An acre-foot is 325,851 gallons — literally, the amount needed to cover an acre with a foot of water. That’s enough to supply two to three households for a year.

“Us being able to get to a 3 million acre-feet deal, the largest conservation deal in the history of the Colorado River, was in large part due to John,” according to U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton. “He will always say that Nevada is 3% of the river as far as allocation. But the impacts and the influence that this state has on the management of the river cannot be understated — especially when you practice what you preach on water conservation.”

Touton said Wednesday that 1.7 million acre-feet from that deal is already saved, and it has made a difference at Lake Mead.

That’s a sobering statement, considering the lake is at 33% of capacity and the past two winters have produced snowpack levels that have raised Lake Mead about 20 feet over the past two years. Lake Powell is 40 feet higher.

It was Touton who set the wheels in motion, tasking the Colorado River Basin states to solve the problem — or the Bureau of Reclamation would solve it for them.

“Two years ago at the end of July, Lake Mead hit the lowest level since filling, since 1937. And as we progressed in that water year, we were also looking at the possibility in the next year, in 2023, of hitting critical elevations at Glen Canyon, at Lake Powell, that could prevent us from producing power,” Touton said.

Tensions were high, with Lake Mead dropping to 1,041.71 feet above sea level on July 27, 2022.

“Also, two years ago this month, the president signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act,” she said. The legislation included $4 billion in funding with a priority for the Colorado River Basin. Half of that money has been allocated, and Touton said the government is on track to move forward on the remaining $2 billion.

Conservation projects in California are getting most of the money. The federal government helping to fund improvements to canals and water systems, recycling projects, WaterSmart grants. That’s where the government can get the biggest bang for the buck.

Earlier this week, the conservation agreement with California’s Imperial Irrigation District moved forward. It’s the largest of all the conservation agreements. 8 News Now reported in November on one family of farmers that uses more water than the entire Las Vegas valley .

Investments in California will directly benefit Lake Mead. If California doesn’t need to use it, the water can stay in the lake.

Nevada has secured $141 million that is allocated to 20 projects across the state. That includes:

• $20 million for critical infrastructure in the Las Vegas Wash
• $29 million for critical storage infrastructure for Laughlin

Lee has secured an additional $4 million for the Lake Mead/Las Vegas Wash Program this year.

Touton pointed to the overall effect of the conservation effort.

“In 2023 alone, the water use in California, Nevada and Arizona were the lowest water uses since 1983,” Touton said. It’s proof that we can solve difficult problems with our water supply, she said.

The Water Summit’s came as Reclamation prepares to release a report on Thursday that will guide the decision on the continuing water shortage in the Southwest U.S. Previous projections indicate that a Tier 1 water shortage will continue. For more information on that, see our previous story: Expect Las Vegas water shortage to remain in effect as Lake Mead projections come out .

Lee, Touton and Entsminger led off the summit, which also included SNWA’s Deputy General Manager Colby Pellegrino, Lake Mead National Recreation Area Superintendent Mike Gauthier, National Drought Mitigation Center Director Dr. Mark Svoboda, Shana Tighi with the Bureau of Reclamation’s water operations staff, and representatives from the Desert Research Institute.

One panel discussion included Touton and Pellegrino, who served together as interns at the Las Vegas Valley Water District early in their careers.

Pellegrino said conservation in Southern Nevada includes a wide variety of ongoing projects, including one that’s converting CCSD school grass fields to turf.

“The ones that we’ve secured recently include those grants on the Las Vegas wash to help with the Las Vegas fish hatchery and help with our septic conversion program along with regular federal funding to help support our smart water landscape program,” Pellegrino said.

SNWA updates its water resource plan every year with a 50-year outlook on growth and water supply.

“If we look backwards for a second, in 2002 we used 325,000 acre feet of water from the Colorado River. Last year we used 188,000 acre feet and we’ve added over 750,000 people to the valley,” Pellegrino said. “So, we’ve effectively shown that we can continue to grow our economy and diversify it and use less water.”

So what would a post-2026 Colorado River look like working with other states?

“It’s focusing on those commonalities, the abilities to see where we can meet each other and then working out those details. So that’s what we’re doing with the Basin states, that’s what we’re doing with the sovereign nations as well as a parallel path with Mexico is remembering there’s a lot more that we agree on than what we disagree,” Touton said.

“We need the tools basin-wide for people to use less water,” Pellegrino said. And we need some collective responsibility that every state and every sector has to figure out how to continue to grow and be vibrant without using less water.”

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