Arizona lawyer Grady Gammage has made the point that agricultural uses are a good thing because they provide a buffer in times of shortage and any damage is economic only.

There is a real base of support here in California among ag and rural users for regional planning. http://www.familiesprotectingthevalley.com/topstory.php?ax=v&n=99&id=99&nid=2496
At this stage, this is primarily to get the State Legislature out of the process. Politically, there remains the Arnold attitude towards water that “We can have it all.” This is simply because of the political control of the State Legislatures by urban users.

Establishing new geographical and political parameters for diversions would change this impulse. Coastal waters have not been included in the array of supply options in California. But, there remain untapped potential supplies that have been modeled elsewhere. “Desalination systems account for a fifth of the freshwater used in Israel and, according to existing plans, by the end of the decade that amount will be doubled.” http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/is-desalination-the-solution-for-israel-s-water-problems-depends-who-you-ask-1.420278 The freshwater fetishness has provided other options not previously on the table. Wastewater has been tapped by Orange County as a source for municipal water supplies. Pacific Institute concluded in a 2006 study: “Is desalination the ultimate solution to our water problems? No. Is it likely to be a piece of our water management puzzle? Yes. In the end, decisions about desalination developments will revolve around complex evaluations of local circumstances and needs, economics, financing, environmental and social impacts, and available alternatives. We urge that such decisions be transparent, honest, public, and systematic.” http://www.pacinst.org/reports/desalination/desalination_report.pdf

Point being: that the tax structure has too long defined the water debates for revenues. No discussion of a tiered water severance tax has been broached. No local revenue raising regional bodies are being proposed to provide collaborative adaptive governance for long-term regional planning. Diversions will always prove to be projects with enormous price tags attached. California’s state budget has been the source of its system of aqueducts throughout the state. But that party is over. Part of the outrage of folks in the Central Valley is the inconsistency of decisions for diversion when L.A. remains the Big Gulp in the state.

We need to get folks in the Delta aligned with folks in the Central Valley to ever make a dent in regards to the political power of coastal metropolitan regions. There is a recent indicator of an effort by Republicans to enlarge their base on water issues in their recent introduction of legislation to restore Hetch-Hetchy. It very well may just be a chip that they are putting on table to provide leverage in the peripheral canal.

You ask: “whether this project will collapse under this economic reality, or whether, as some California water veterans have suggested to me, the project will move ahead anyway in classic Western water tradition, subsidized by state and/or federal taxpayers.” More fundamental questions to raise are: Will the charge of the project to users impact on local ag and urban water use in the Central Valley? Will this impact the economic situation and food production of the Central Valley? Are there any options that can address the issue of supply of water equitably for the Central Valley? I think I have included several of those options that have not been developed. A public planning process would certainly increase the options explored for their feasibility.

January 17, 2009
Southern Nevada Water Authority
Dear Ms. Mulroy and SNWA, (same info sent to Bureau of Reclamation at the same time)

As we all know, Obama’s administration is investigating projects for the upcoming Stimulus Bill of $825 billion.
Development of a non-tributary fresh water Source that, on average, could yield a million acre feet for the region and be utilized to keep Lake Mead reasonably FULL is worthy of consideration.

Development of the Source is not outrageous, but I agree when Ms. Mulroy said, “Policymakers will need to become creative, even ‘outrageous’.”

The SNWA should make the following known to the Obama administration:
Lake Mead holds 28.5 million acre feet and when FULL can produce 2075 megawatts of renewable energy each year.

By comparison, 21,000 desalination plants in 120 countries around the world produce 3.4 million acre feet a year. A $300 million dollar wind farm will only produce 150 megawatts !

Lake Mead ’s Hoover Dam and 17 generators are already built, paid for and fully functioning!

To appreciate a new Source solution to keep Lake Mead reasonably FULL, it is important to understand that all of the present tributary water flowing into and/or stored in Lake Mead already belongs to others and is subject to The Law of the (Colorado) River which is an accumulation of court decrees, compacts and case law stretching back to when the indigenous tribes first inhabited the desert Southwest.

In other words, “don’t even think about touching one drop of the present Colorado River water supply; it already legally belongs to someone else” !

Such non-tributary water must be fresh water which is under no circumstances any part of any tributary or groundwater that would drain into or possibly be connected to or eventually ever reach (and never has reached) any part of the Colorado River or any of its tributaries in any state.

Delivery of non-tributary water from the new Source would not be subject to the provisions of the Law of the River because such water was never part of the Colorado River or its tributaries when the Laws of the River were set in stone.

More importantly, non-tributary water from the new Source could be stored in Lake Mead WITHOUT DAMAGE to the existing water rights of those who already own and control all of the presently existing Colorado River water.

If water from the new Source were to be stored in Lake Mead, the surface area of Lake Mead would increase. That surface area increase would cause more evaporation. The increase in evaporation would have to be subtracted off of the amount of non-tributary water stored.

For example, Lake Mead presently has in storage approximately 15 million acre feet and has a surface area of 93,000 acres. If one million acre feet of non-tributary water were to be added, the surface area would increase to 97345 acres. The additional 4345 acres would cause the evaporation losses( +-7 ft/yr) to increase by 30,415 acre feet per year. In order to keep the non-tributary water in Lake Mead without damage to the water rights of others, 30,415 acre feet (3%) would have to be subtracted off of the million acre feet of non-tributary water accumulated. Each year, the evaporation loss would be re-evaluated and accounted for.

The increase in renewable energy production due to the increase in reservoir depth could more than pay for the rental of the available air space in Lake Mead .

If an extra million acre feet of non-tributary water could be accumulated in Lake Mead EACH YEAR, Lake Mead could, in a few years, be kept reasonably FULL and functioning rather than going DRY as predicted.
Utilizing the million acre feet to keep Lake Mead full is only one option available. It may not be desirable to put all the fresh water in one shopping basket.

Some of this million acre feet a year could be used by Las Vegas (SNWA) and the cities of California .
Large instantaneous releases could be made to seasonally flood & restore the Colorado River Delta, worth $2.4 billion a year.

75,000 acre feet a year could be released for diversion into the old All American Canal for groundwater recharge purposes to keep the 1.3 million people of Mexicali , Mexico from being without water in exchange for Mexico ’s cooperation with the drug and immigration issues.

Non-tributary water in storage is rather amazing in that it can be utilized for exchanges. There are instances where owners of the non-tributary water can simply trade/exchange their non-tributary water for the natural flow water and thus put water to various beneficial uses in geographic areas where previously it would have not been allowed.
All exchanges have to approved, properly measured and administered for by those in authority to avoid damage to existing water rights.

The legal concepts associated with the movement and storage of non-tributary water are certainly not new to Bureau of Reclamation projects and private ventures throughout the west.
Vast networks of diversion, storage, delivery and re-use of non-tributary waters enable the Colorado Big Thompson, Fryingpan-Arkansas, San Juan-Chama and scores of other projects to function on a daily basis in the desert Southwest.

Being from Colorado , the new Secretary of Interior, Ken Salazar knows a great deal about these projects and can verify how they function.

With communication, cooperation and coordination, exchanges may be possible which would help solve the issues surrounding Las Vegas , but also the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta .

As an interesting example for evaluation, at times on a space available basis conveyance structures could receive the stored non-tributary water IN EXCHANGE for leaving an equal amount in northern California .
Such an exchange could be a win-win trade.

Point being that a water exchange can be made hundreds of miles away and can involve sometimes several totally separate river basins simultaneously without damage to anyone’s legal water entitlements.
Nevada , Las Vegas and California need “WATER INSURANCE”.

A totally versatile supply of millions of acre feet of non-tributary fresh water stored in numerous reservoirs may very well mean the difference between financial life or death for thousands of Nevadans & Californians in the event of severe drought, earthquakes, terrorism or even guagga mussel attacks.

For all entities/agencies/municpalities/bureaus/states a readily available supply of fresh water for mitigation would certainly beat the millions of dollars spent for litigation, which never creates one new drop of fresh water !
The best laid plans to mine the groundwater of the deserts for Las Vegas and the cities of Southern California may not turn out as designed.

A water insurance policy to avoid the devastation & disappointment when all does not go well could avoid an avalance of cease and desist orders which might very well curtail the communities of the future.
I would appreciate it if the SNWA would let me know that they have received this communique’.
As always, I am open to all suggestions that enable a complete confidential disclosure to occur so that the SNWA and others can evaluate the merits of developing the Source and pass the information on to the Obama administration.

Ray Walker (Retired Water Rights Analyst)
waterrdw@yahoo.com

Best,

D