Paiutes seek water rights for planned power plant

Friday, Aug. 11, 2000 | 11:04 a.m.

The Moapa Paiutes dream of the day when they can tap into scarce ground water already claimed by federal agencies and Southern Nevada water purveyors in order to build a natural-gas fired power plant and generate electricity for sale to Las Vegas.

They have joined with Calpine Corp. of San Jose, Calif., in a venture to build the plant on their Moapa Valley Indian Reservation, 45 miles northeast of Las Vegas.

The major hurdle is water. In June the tribe requested 7,000 acre feet of ground water from the state engineer's office.

That brought protests from the Las Vegas Valley Water District, the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Moapa Valley Water District and the Muddy Valley Irrigation District, ready to fight for their own water rights at a hearing that could come as early as October.

All claim their rights take precedence over the Paiutes. Congress gave the Indians 77,000 acres of land in 1980, down from 2 million acres the Paiutes had claimed since 1873. The land stretches from Mesquite to Sunrise Mountain in Las Vegas.

The Paiutes also claim rights to the Virgin, Muddy and Colorado rivers under their 19th century holdings.

Selling power, the Paiutes believe, will enhance their revenues from a small casino and sales of cigarettes and fireworks near the entrance to the Valley of Fire State Park.

Nevada Power Co.'s Harry Allen generating plant is south of the proposed Moapa plant, so there is a ready route to market the electricity.

"It will bring in some revenue, jobs for our people and bring in more business," Paiute Vice Chair Candice Grayman said of the plant.

If it is built in three years, the plant's electricity sales could boost income to the 300 Paiutes by $200 million over 35 years, projections released at a meeting Thursday night on the reservation show.

"We are not bad people," tribal council member Calvin Meyers said. "We were here before all of you and we want an opportunity to develop and grow."

With one of the largest independent power producers in the nation -- Calpine -- the Paiute band is confident that it can tap into the Kern River natural gas pipeline to fuel three generators and cool the plant from a ground water aquifer that stretches from the Great Salt Lake in Utah to Death Valley in California.

But no one knows how much water is available underground, a major question to be answered in environmental studies, Calpine's project development manager John Doyle said.

Las Vegas attorney LaMond Mills, representing the Moapa Valley Water District and the Muddy River Irrigation District, said the unknown extent of water resources on the reservation should raise warnings for the future.

Mills asked for adequate testing of the ground water because 7,000 acre feet represents "a significant amount of water." An acre foot of water will supply a family of four for a year.

If plant operations affect ground water flows or springs supporting the endangered Moapa dace fish, a federal injunction could shut down the plant, Mills warned.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs represents the tribe's interests, Ben Burshia, a BIA field representative, said. The BIA will help the Paiute band and Calpine negotiate a 50-year lease with a 25-year option. "We're here to protect the land, the water, the air, the people and the wildlife on the land," Burshia said. "We take the responsibility very seriously."

Once environmental studies are completed in a year, the tribe and energy company will request permission from the Interior secretary to build the plant.

Calpine isn't waiting. By next year the company expects to be selling electricity from the Fort Mojave Indian Reservation near Bullhead City, Ariz., where a similar generating plant called South Point is under construction. The power will be sold to Arizona, California and Nevada.