Colorado River pact smart

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne may want to enter the diplomatic corps when his political appointment expires.

After all, he brokered a 20-year agreement among seven western states that share Colorado River water, effectively setting aside age-old disputes over the use of the resource. The agreement, signed late last week in Las Vegas, requires participants to conserve and share the water. However, it provides assurances to upper basin states, including Utah, that their river allocations are secure.

This was the political equivalent of herding cats, a remarkable feat all the way around.

Perhaps the only constituency that may not like the agreement are water attorneys. The plan, which covers Utah, California, Arizona, Nevada, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico, resolved several legal disputes and committed member states "to address future controversies on the river through consultation and negotiation before ... litigation," Kempthorne said at a press conference to announce the deal.

The plan encourages water conservation but also provides much-needed water storage in Lake Mead reservoir for lower-basin states California, Nevada and Arizona. Previously, these states operated under a "use it or lose it" mandate. Meanwhile, the agreement also establishes rules to allow Lake Powell and Lake Mead to rise and fall in tandem to better address the risk of drought.

Kempthorne, wisely, steered clear of the politics of global warming, acknowledged that the Earth is warming and that the Western states would be best served by determining how the phenomena would affect Western water supplies. The agreement also addresses water allocations in times of surplus. Those rules encourage conservation, too.

While conservation in times of surplus may seem unnecessary, signers of this agreement are painfully aware of drought conditions worldwide, but in the West specifically. Five of the seven Colorado River basins are expected to decline by more than 15 percent during the 21st century.

The Department of Interior is also working with Mexico to resolve issues over Colorado River water that crosses the border. There should be great optimism that those matters can be satisfactorily resolved. As Kempthorne explains, "If the seven states of the Colorado River basin can get together and work out a deal, then surely anybody can."