EDITORIAL: Nevada deserves to be treated fairly in water discussions

The deadline looms for a new deal on the Colorado River among the seven basin states, including Nevada. Absent an agreement by October, Department of the Interior officials will impose their own arbitrary rules, which likely will include cuts to current allocation levels.

John Entsminger, general manager of the Southern Nevada Water District, said the state is ready to defend its rights in court. “We are thoroughly prepared to fight like hell if it comes to that,” he told the Review-Journal’s Alan Halaly. “We’re trying to avoid that, but we have a number of long-term relationships and contracts with outside counsel. If it comes to fighting to protect the water interests of Southern Nevada, we’re ready.”

This is entirely appropriate. Adjustments must certainly be made given drought trends and the reality that the 1922 Colorado River Compact overallocated the river in the first place. But Nevada is not the problem. Neither is urban residential water use across the Southwest. In fact, the majority of Colorado River water — as much as 80 percent — supports various agricultural interests operating in a parched desert.

There are other reasons Las Vegas shouldn’t be asked to bear the brunt of any federal “solution” to this issue. First and foremost, Nevada has the smallest allocation — 300,000 acre-feet a year — of any state. Of greater importance, however, Nevada and the Las Vegas area have done more than any other entities to conserve and manage this precious resource, which should be a key factor to consider when Washington’s water bureaucrats begin doling out the pain.

Last year, researchers from UCLA went over data and found that Nevada far and away led the basin states in water recycling, re-using 85 percent of what it took out from the Colorado. Arizona was at 52 percent and California hit only 22 percent. Meanwhile, upper basin states Wyoming and Utah re-used virtually nothing.

“It’s not every day,” one of the participants in the UCLA study later admitted, “that Nevada has some serious environmental bragging rights.”

Indeed, these aggressive conservation and re-use efforts have borne tremendous fruit even with rapid population growth. In 2025, the state used a net of just 198,000 acre-feet of the Colorado. Just 20 years ago, Nevada was close to consuming its entire allocation. In other words, over the past two decades Southern Nevada has added about 750,000 residents but uses 33 percent less water.

These are vital factors that must be considered in Nevada’s favor if the federal government steps in to impose a new framework for Colorado River water use.