State official challenges country club on sale of water rights

Wednesday, April 26, 2000 | 4:04 a.m.

Nevada's water chief is at odds with a prominent country club over a plan to sell unused water the club claims to own.

The Las Vegas Country Club plans to sell the water at auction Saturday in a sale that could generate about $2.5 million.

But State Engineer Michael Turnipseed has challenged the sale, questioning in a letter to the club whether it is legally entitled to the water.

The country club and an auction company have been running newspaper ads promoting the planned sale to small developers wanting water for rural subdivisions far from municipal water systems.

"Your recent advertisements in the newspaper ... has peaked (sic) my interest in that I am uncertain as to whether you have anything to sell," wrote Turnipseed, who oversees Nevadans' water rights to use groundwater.

Turnipseed suggested the club might not have the right to auction the water because records show the club may have never used it, Turnipseed wrote. In Nevada, and throughout the West, users must show they have put water to a productive purpose in order to maintain the legal right to it. Water rights can be bought and sold like other property in most circumstances.

Auctioneer Guy Deiro said the club used the 238 acre-feet of water in the past and no longer needs it because of water-efficient golf course irrigation. The club continues to use hundreds of acre-feet of groundwater a year.

Deiro claimed Turnipseed was trying to, in effect, punish the old-line country club for saving water. He said Saturday's sale would proceed as planned.

"What the state is saying is, because the club was water-conscious, we're going to fine you $2.5 million," Deiro told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "What should they have done, let it run into the street?"

Deiro's company would earn a commission of 5 to 10 percent on the auction.

Deiro's father and fellow auctioneer Robert Deiro accused the Las Vegas Valley Water District of manipulating the state engineer's office into undermining the sale in order to push more residents into using the public water system.

"They don't want to see this water released to the general public," said Robert Deiro, a former member of the water district's citizen advisory council on groundwater management. "It's going against the grain of the purveyors down here who want you to hook up to the pipe."

Water district spokesman Vince Alberta disagreed.

"That's the jurisdiction of the state engineer," Alberta said. "Sometimes those decisions are tough decisions and not everybody agrees with them."

Deputy State Engineer Hugh Ricci agreed, calling Robert Deiro's argument "ridiculous."