Beleaguered business owners at Lake Mead are due for a break, and one appears to be on the way. The ever-declining water level at the lake has cost marinas and other businesses millions of dollars.
Business owners at the mead feel mistreated. Their gripe is that the water level at Lake Powell has risen more than 30 feet while the level at Lake Mead continues to drop.
U.S. Senator Harry Reid heard the lament of the business owners and called an assortment of agencies and stakeholders and told them to all sit down at the table. The result could mean some extra water for the lake.
It's both appropriate and ironic to hold a secret meeting to talk about water levels inside a houseboat on the very lake that is dropping by the day. Federal agencies were inside, along with local agencies, business owners, and Reid staffers. But the agenda specified that media was not welcome, so the I-Team waited at dock for the participants to emerge.
Former Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson declined to talk. So did the National Park Service. But Southern Nevada Water Authority boss Pat Mulroy stopped to chat, though she was surprised to see us there. "The meeting was very positive," she said.
Mulroy was Nevada's negotiator when the deal was cut to allocate water levels in Lake Mead and Lake Powell. This year, Powell keeps going up, rising half a foot a day, while Mead keeps dropping -- some 14 feet since April. How can this be fair, marina operators asked? They're spending millions to constantly move their marinas further out. Millions more have been lost because of potential visitors who stayed home.
During the meeting, Mulroy delivered the bad news that the agreement cannot be changed - it's carved in concrete. But she was also there for the good news; more water is on the way, according to the Bureau of Reclamation. "The bureau was able to find another foot in the lower basin operations, but that's as far as they can squeeze the system," she said.
The extra water will be kept at Lake Mead instead of being released to Lake Mojave. A one- foot boost sounds like good news to Randy Roundtree of Callville Bay. The evidence of previous expensive moves sits high and dry around Callville and more costly operations are underway now. An extra foot could mean his marina won't have to move again this summer.
"We didn't get the water we wanted for this year. It's late and there's a lot more to it than pulling a plug, but they will let us meet with them to plan and they listened to our concerns, made us a stakeholder," he said.
Roundtree says it's the first time he and the other concessionaires have had a seat at the table or had the ear of federal officials. The Bureau of Reclamation even offered to lend the use of their giant dredger to help the owners out during the summer.
Roundtree and others who attended the cone-of-silence meeting say it's a chance to open the lines of communication, ones that have not been open until now, "If we understand the forecasting, we can prepare better."
Senator Reid, who gave a nudge to all of the agencies to get them to the meeting, says it's not going to be easy to try and maintain water levels at Lake Mead, but the businesses out there do need help in order to stay open.
The extra water will be kept at Lake Mead instead of being released to Lake Mojave.
National Park Service would not discuss the meeting.
Former Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson declined to talk.
