LAKE MEAD (KTNV) — Nevada and other states are suggesting new ways to determine how to conserve the Colorado River and our water supply.
People who visit Lake Mead know something has to change to keep more water in southern Nevada.
"Just conserve," said visitor Tom McWilliams. "I think it is just best to not use so much of the water and keep some of it back."
The big question. How do we save as much of it as possible?
Federal officials think Lake Mead and our water supply are okay for now. However, they need a plan for after 2026 and some ideas are being sent their way but they do differ.
There are two new proposals for how to save 1.5 million acre feet of Colorado River water by cutting allocations. One is from the lower basin states like Nevada, Arizona and California. The other is from states up-river, including Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico.
John Entsminger from the Southern Nevada Water Authority weighed in after the proposals came out this week.
"Ours shares the pain and theirs shifts all the pain to us," he told me. "They are fundamentally at odds with each other and it seems like what we heard over the last few days, the negotiations between upper and lower basin states, unfortunately, struck a breakdown the last few months. That was clearly evident."
John Berggren is a regional policy manager from Western Resource Advocates, an organization working to protect and sustain the environment in the west.
"We are going to be looking at how each proposal impacts the environmental considerations that we care about," Berggren said.
He said they also plan to submit a plan focusing on how to save the river's environment and how to stabilize the whole system.
"We are also going to be in partnership some other environmental NGOs submitting our own ideas," Berggren said.
Soon, the federal government will look at all proposals and release a draft at the end of the year.
When those drafts are made public, you will also have the chance to review them and weigh in.
