Paiutes fighting for ground water for power plant

Monday, Dec. 11, 2000 | 11:28 a.m.

A natural gas power plant would lift the Moapa Paiutes out of poverty and benefit the rest of Clark County by providing a new source of energy, tribal representatives argued Friday.

Lawyers and tribal leaders made their case to State Engineer Hugh Ricci during the first of many expected hearings on rights to 7,000 acre-feet of water in the Moapa Valley.

The request is opposed by the Southern Nevada Water Authority and the Las Vegas Valley Water District, which say they have prior claims to the water for future use in the growing Las Vegas Valley.

But the Paiutes, who have lived on the swath of desert northeast of Las Vegas for more than 1,000 years, say if they lose their fight before the state engineer, they will claim ancestral rights, which predate all other claims but must be proved in court.

The Paiutes want the ground water to allow Calpine Energy Corp. of San Jose, Calif., build a water-cooled natural-gas fired power plant to supply electricity to Las Vegas and other rapidly growing areas in the Southwest and to lift the tribe out of poverty, attorney Steve Chestnut, representing the tribe, said.

"It's a question of survival for these first citizens of that land," Chestnut said at the first hearing on the issue in Las Vegas on Friday.

With the stroke of a pen in 1875, the federal government took 2 million acres of tribal land away from the Paiutes, leaving them today subsisting on 70,565 acres along Interstate 15 about 45 miles northeast of Las Vegas, Chestnut said.

For the 300 people living on the Moapa Reservation, the $200 million in revenues over 35 years from a productive power plant could mean health care, better treatment of their elders and education for children who often leave the reservation looking for better lives, tribal Chairwoman Candace Grayman said.

The federal Labor Department's most recent report showed that only nine Moapa tribal members earn more than $9,000 a year.

"Calpine would offer jobs to the tribe," Grayman said.

A small casino and smoke shop provide a handful of jobs on the reservation, Grayman said.

The tribe also argued that the ground water is not suitable for drinking. In fact, the tribe trucks in water to the reservation and drinks bottled water because the ground water is full of minerals, making it harder than water straight from the Colorado River.

If the tribe gets the rights to the ground water, the Calpine power plant will treat and use it to generate extra electricity to power-hungry customers, Calpine Project Manager John Doyle said.

Las Vegas officials have urged Calpine to build an air-cooled plant, so the water authority can secure more water in the Moapa Valley for thirsty Las Vegas. But Doyle said that air-cooled plants are 20 percent less efficient when temperatures rise above 100 degrees Fahrenheit and produce more air pollution.

If recent power shortages in California are any indication, the Southwest will need all the power it can get, Doyle said. Calpine plans to bid on a request by the Southern Nevada Water Authority, the largest power user in the Las Vegas Valley, to supply electricity for pumping water uphill to the valley, he said.

Calpine could have the Moapa plant running by June 2003, Doyle said, if the tribe secures water. A similar project under way by Calpine in Arizona on the Fort Mohave reservation 90 miles southeast of Las Vegas should be ready in a year.

Opponents of the Paiute claims to Moapa water say they have the first right to the resource. It's a matter of priority, who had the claims on the water first, Reno attorney Ross deLipkau, representing the Las Vegas Valley Water District, said.

The Water District filed its claim with the state engineer in 1989.

Moapa Valley Water District attorney Robert Marshall echoed deLipkau's concerns and protested the tribe's request along with the Las Vegas Valley Water District.

"You're being asked to approve a later filing for water rights over prior filings," Marshall said. "In this situation, I think, you're going to open a Pandora's box of filings."

However, Chestnut replied, the tribe received permission from Congress in 1980 to put Moapa's ground water to use for industrial and commercial purposes because it isn't fit to drink.

"This doesn't open a Pandora's box, this gives justice to people who deserve it," he said.