Testimony of Commissioner Mary Kincaid
Chairman, Southern Nevada Water Authority
U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works
Field Hearing - Las Vegas, Nevada
July 7, 1999

Introduction

Mr. Chairman, I am Mary Kincaid and I am a member of the Board of County Commissioners for Clark County and I serve as Chairman of the Southern Nevada Water Authority. The SNWA member agencies are;

Big Bend Water District in Laughlin
Boulder City
City of Henderson
City of North Las Vegas
Clark County Sanitation District, and
The Las Vegas Valley Water District which serves Clark County and the City of Las Vegas.

I thank you for asking me to testify today about how we in southern Nevada have managed our most precious public resource, water. Please excuse me if I brag just a little bit about the Southern Nevada Water Authority because it is truly a remarkable example of how regional cooperation among local governments can produce significant results.

Water Wars

It was not all that long ago that the municipalities and the County acted like they do everywhere else in the west, we fought over water. Under the old paradigm, the State Colorado River Commission divvied up Nevada's share of the Colorado River to each city and water purveyor based upon projections of need. As you can appreciate, each entity wanted the most water it could get so our "needs": estimates became somewhat inflated. Furthermore, because of the time tested water doctrines of "first in time is first in right" and "use it or lose it", each water purveyor sought to beat the other to the well, so to speak, with the biggest and best plan to quickly use up all our water. Because the town of Laughlin had the lowest water right priority, they faced the absurd prospect that in the event of a drought on the Colorado, the town's entire supply could be lost while the residents of the Las Vegas Valley continued to enjoy watering their lawns and washing their cars twice a week.

Needless to say, under such a system the ethic of water conservation was almost non-existent. As we in southern Nevada raced towards the precipice of exhausting our then available supply, we finally woke up and came to our senses.

Birth of the Southern Nevada Water Authority

The fundamental principle which we came to realize is that for the good of the community as a whole, each of us must surrender our water weapons and end the water wars. Beginning in May 1989, with the help of a water management consulting firm called Water Resources Management Inc. (WRMI), the leaders of each city and county water and wastewater agency began a process which led to the establishment of the SNWA on July 25, 1991. During this two year "WRMI" process there were some difficult days of negotiation, mediation and realization. What emerged from the WRMI process over several months was a new paradigm, "share and share alike".

The SNWA is a regional governmental body which has been vested by all of its member agencies with the responsibility to manage southern Nevada's water supplies without regard to arbitrary jurisdictional boundaries or the old rules which encouraged us to squander and waste our most precious resource. We have agreed to abandon water right priorities among purveyors. We agreed upon a division among the purveyors of the State's remaining allocation of Colorado River water. We have developed a shared shortage agreement to protect Laughlin. We have agreed to common water conservation standards to be applied everywhere. We are pursuing jointly additional supplies of water which will be shared by all.

Partnership with the State of Nevada

A second significant and important accomplishment was the enactment by the 1993 Nevada Legislature of a new law which reconstituted the Colorado River Commission with three members from the SNWA. This important reform recognizes that with respect to our involvement outside with other Colorado River states, we are all Nevadans, our objectives should be unified into a single strategy for the benefit of southern Nevada.

Two years later the 1995 Legislature provided yet another layer of cooperation by transferring responsibility for the Southern Nevada Water System from the Colorado River Commission to the SNWA whose member agencies deliver water directly to the customers.

While these institutional reforms may not appear to be all that significant, all it takes is a quick look at the water wars which are occurring in California to understand the value of uniting in cause and purpose. Our successes have been significant. Every entity has enacted far reaching water conservation ordinances which have already achieved a 16% reduction in water use with the goal of 25% by 2005. We have consolidated our water resources, both groundwater and Colorado River water, to add in effect an additional 300,000 acre feet of supply which will take us to 2025. We have embarked upon the largest water system expansion in the country and have garnered the support of 74 % of the electorate of Clark County for a 1/4 cent increase in the sales tax to pay for it. Our new water system will provide new delivery capacity sufficient for decades, improve water quality, and offer greater reliability.

Conclusion

Again I want to thank the Committee for this chance to explain how the SNWA has become a leader in the west in managing our water resources. We have proved with water that the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts. Thank you.