Pubdate: Sat, 24 May 2014
Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal (NV)
Copyright: 2014 Las Vegas Review-Journal
Contact: http://www.reviewjournal.com/about/print/press/letterstoeditor.html
Website: http://www.lvrj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/233
Author: Henry Brean
Page: 1A

LV CLEAR OF FEDERAL POT WATER DIRECTIVE

Policy Targets Weed Fed by Colorado River

Budding local weed farmers can breathe easily. A new federal policy 
directive that could bar the delivery of Colorado River water to 
marijuana cultivators apparently does not apply to those in the Las 
Vegas Valley.

Though roughly 90 percent of the valley's water comes from the river 
by way of federally managed Lake Mead, officials from the Southern 
Nevada Water Authority believe their agency is exempt from a 
temporary policy statement unveiled this week by the U.S. Bureau of 
Reclamation.

Authority spokesman Bronson Mack said agency lawyers have reviewed 
the policy and decided it does not apply to municipal water suppliers.

Dan DuBray, public affairs chief for the bureau in Washington, D.C., 
offered a similar take, noting the policy statement was issued in 
response to a direct question about irrigation districts that draw on 
federally controlled water and could serve state-approved pot farms 
in Colorado and Washington state.

"It's about irrigation water. It's about open irrigation water," DuBray said.

The policy states that in accordance with the federal Controlled 
Substances Act of 1970, the bureau "will not approve use of 
Reclamation facilities or water in the cultivation of marijuana."

It goes on to require bureau employees to report to their superiors 
if "Reclamation facilities or the water they supply" are being used 
to grow marijuana.

The policy statement, which expires in May 2015, does not draw a 
distinction between - or even specifically mention - irrigation 
districts and municipal water suppliers, but both DuBray and Mack 
said the water authority falls under a specific exemption for 
agencies that take water from a federal source and mix it with other 
water "in nonfederal facilities" before delivery to customers.

Though Hoover Dam is a federal facility, the authority and its member 
utilities own the intake pipes and treatment plants that draw water 
from Lake Mead and clean it up for delivery to local taps.

That wasn't always the case. The federal government built the first 
intake pipe and treatment plant that began delivering drinking water 
to Las Vegas in the early 1970s, about the same time the Controlled 
Substances Act took effect. The water authority bought those 
facilities from the Bureau of Reclamation in 2001.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom