LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Local and state leaders are working on a plan to protect the future of the Colorado River.
Tuesday, Congresswoman Susie Lee hosted a water summit at the Springs Preserve to discuss future priorities for Nevada.
By the end of 2027, the seven states that share the river, including Nevada, will need to negotiate new rules to manage the dwindling resource better.
On Aug. 15, Nevada, California and Arizona sent a joint letter to the Bureau of Reclamation outlining its negotiation priorities.
The lower basin states say they want to protect the water they’ve conserved, highlighting the years and millions of dollars to keep water in Lake Mead.
It also calls for including the 30 indigenous tribes that rely on the resource in negotiations.
In addition, the letter asks the U.S. Department of Interior to find a long-term funding source to support conservation efforts.
“A lot of the funding for these efforts came from the Inflation Reduction Act, such things as paying farmers to fallow fields, change to less water-intensive crops, but in addition to that, you still need the conservation component to be sustainable into the future,” Lee said.
Nevada also wants funding from the feds to protect the Las Vegas Wash, which is critical in Southern Nevada’s water conservation efforts.
The Southern Nevada Water Authority says the wash delivers 2 million gallons of recycled, clean water back to Lake Mead daily.
There are 22 erosion control structures called weirs along the Las Vegas Wash now, according to SNWA. But the federal government owns a section of the wash, and the water authority wants $379 million to add weirs, reduce erosion in that area, and fix the damage already there.
