<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16544" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV>
<TABLE class=article cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=946 border=0>
<TBODY>
<TR vAlign=top>
<TD id=contentcol><A href="http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/"><IMG
height=21 alt="San Francisco Chronicle" hspace=0
src="http://www.sfgate.com/templates/brands/chronicle/images/chronicle_logo.gif"
width=150 border=0></A><BR>
<DIV id=divider><!-- dont write <hr /> here --></DIV>
<DIV class=headlines>
<H1>States OK new deal on Colorado River water</H1></DIV>
<P class=byline>New York Times</P>
<P class=date>Monday, December 10, 2007
<SCRIPT language=javascript><!--
OAS_RICH('x90'); //--></SCRIPT>
</P><!--/sharelinks--><!--/sharepop1--><!--/fontpopup--><!--/fontbutton-->
<SCRIPT language=javascript type=text/javascript>
document.getElementById('fontpopup').onmouseout = sfgate_chfont_mo;
</SCRIPT>
<!--/.toolset-->
<DIV class="clear loweredge"></DIV><!--/.articletools-->
<DIV id=articlecontent><SPAN class="georgia md" id=bodytext>
<SCRIPT language=javascript
type=text/javascript>
sfgate_get_fprefs();
</SCRIPT>
<P>Facing the worst drought in a century and the prospect that climate
change could produce long-term changes on the Colorado River, the lifeline
for several Western states, federal officials have reached a new pact with
the states on how to allocate water if the river runs short.</P>
<P>State and federal officials praised the agreement, which Interior
Secretary Dirk Kempthorne was expected to sign Thursday, as a landmark
akin to the Colorado River Compact of 1922 that first divvied up how much
water the seven states served by the river - California, Nevada, Arizona,
Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming - receive annually.</P>
<P>The new accord, outlined by federal officials in a telephone news
conference Friday, spells out how three down-river states, California,
Arizona and Nevada, will share the pain of water shortages. It puts in
place new measures to encourage conservation and manage the two primary
reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, which have gone from nearly full to
about half empty since 1999.</P>
<P>The accord is expected to forestall likely litigation as fast-growing
states jockey for the best way to keep the water flowing to their
residents and businesses in increasingly dry times. It would be in effect
through 2026 and could be revised during that time.</P>
<P>Some environmental groups said the pact did not go far enough to
encourage conservation and discourage growth. But federal officials said
they took the best of several proposals by the states, environmental
organizations and others and emphasized the importance of all seven states
agreeing with the result.</P>
<P>The pact, the product of 2 1/2 years of negotiation and study,
establishes criteria for the Interior Department to declare a shortage on
the river, which would occur when the system is unable to produce the 7.5
million acre-feet of water, enough to supply 15 million homes for a year,
that the three down-river states are entitled to.</P>
<P>Water deliveries would be decreased based on how far water levels drop
in Lake Mead and Lake Powell. The Bureau of Reclamation, which manages the
river system, predicts about a 5 percent chance of such a shortage being
declared by 2010, but it all depends on how much the states are able to
conserve and, of course, the weather.</P>
<P></P></SPAN></DIV></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></DIV></BODY></HTML>