Thousands of homes may hinge on water fight

Friday, Nov. 3, 2000 | 11:23 a.m.

A race for water rights 90 miles north of Las Vegas could signal the construction of thousands of new homes.

Both the Las Vegas Water District and a Reno-based developer, Coyote Springs Investment, are going after the rights for millions of gallons of high-quality underground water in the Upper Moapa Valley, straddling the Clark County-Lincoln County line.

The state engineers office will review the applications in July and August. The water district and Coyote Springs Investment will have to do thorough hydrological tests to determine the amount of water available for pumping and the effect that draining the aquifer will have "down-slope."

The aquifer is considered by scientists as the source for surface water that eventually reaches the Colorado River through springs.

Coyote Springs Investment is owned by prominent lobbyist Harvey Whittemore, who represents tobacco companies, firearm manufacturers and gambling concerns in Carson City.

Whittemore said he doesn't know how many homes will go up on the 85 square miles owned by his company in the area, although published reports put the number at as many as 50,000 homes. The first phase of the master-planned community would be to build two golf courses and a village center, he said.

The company already has water rights for 3,100 acre-feet of water, enough for a similar number of homes or several golf courses. But the state engineers office will hear the company's argument for rights to about 40,000 acre-feet of water in August.

The company also has applications in for another 72,000 acre-feet of water, which hasn't yet been scheduled for a hearing.

An acre-foot of water, which is the amount of water that would cover one acre with water 1 foot deep, is about 326,000 gallons, or about enough water for a family of four for one year.

Whittemore said the plan is to build an environmentally sound project in the relatively pristine area, which is now habitat for endangered fish and wildlife. But the prospect has environmentalists and some federal officials concerned.

Environmentalists fear that the worst result could be dry springs and river beds over hundreds of square miles, the loss of critical fish and animal habitat and development sprawling north of the metro area.

Charles Watkins, director of the Nevada Outdoor Recreation Association, is one of those who have lined up to oppose the water-rights applications. Watkins echoed other environmentalists, who say granting the water rights would have catastrophic effects on the environment, nearby endangered fish and animals, and archaeological sites in the Upper Moapa Valley.

Watkins opposed the original deal, which transferred the U.S. Bureau of Land Management property to Aerojet in 1988, a defense contractor that said the land was needed to test rocket engines, in exchange for 5,000 acres of land slated for the Everglades reclamation effort in Florida.

Aerojet in 1996 sold the land to Coyote Springs Investment for $15 million, confirming the fears of development that environmentalists had expressed from the genesis of the land swap.

Since then Coyote Springs Investment has sold 7,500 acre-feet of existing water rights to the Las Vegas Water District for $25 million.

Watkins said the land swap and development deal are the latest moves in an attempt to privatize the entire Interstate 15 corridor from Las Vegas to the Utah state line.

Watkins said a coalition of environmental groups, local and national, would sue to stop the development. That suit could include the federal government because of the failure to protect endangered fish and animals, he said.

Tim Mayer, a hydrologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said several conservation areas and threatened species could be affected by drilling for water in the area. Among the animals that could be affected are the desert tortoise and bighorn sheep.

The Moapa dace, a kind of fish found only in the region, also could be threatened, he said.

Mayer and others, including State Engineer Hugh Ricci, said the impact on those species -- and on water supplies from Ely to Logandale in the huge underground aquifer -- isn't yet known. The effect of the pumping has to be studied by the applicants before their hearings before the State Engineer next summer.

The applications also could be derailed if the pumping would affect those who already own water rights, which is why agencies, groups and individuals including the Moapa Valley Water District, the Moapa Band of the Paiute Indians, federal agencies and towns and counties statewide have officially filed as "protestants" to the applications.

That gives them legal standing to challenge the applications during the state engineer's hearings next summer.

"We kind of doubt there's even 27,000 acre-feet of water down there available without impacting people downstream," Mayer said.

Whittemore, however, said he's confident that the water is there for the taking.

He dismisses fears that the development project will affect the conservation areas nearby, or that the project is an extension of urban sprawl.

The same company produced a master-planned-community near Reno that won environmental awards, Whittemore said.

The company is negotiating with the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to ensure that the land is developed in an environmentally responsible fashion, he said.

The company also is negotiating with the Las Vegas Water District and Moapa Valley Water District to provide service to the community once it is built, he said.

Richard Wimmer, water district deputy general manager, said his agency has purchased existing water rights from Coyote Springs Investment but has no plans to offer service to the new development. The water district opposes the Coyote Springs Investment water rights application.

The district has to protect its access to tens of thousands of acre-feet in the Upper Moapa Valley, Wimmer said. If hydrologists -- geologists specializing in water -- find more there, then the agency won't oppose the company's application, he said.

The district has 10-year-old applications for 27,000 acre-feet of water in the region. Coyote Springs Investments filed its applications last summer, and state law gives seniority rights to the older claim.

The water district's potentially competing applications for tens of thousands of acre-feet of water are needed to quench the Las Vegas Valley's thirst in case supplies from Lake Mead become insufficient, he said.

Whittemore is confident that the applications will be approved and that the development will succeed.

"Anytime you have water and land in the Southwest, we believe the market is going to reward an effort in developing that land as long as you do it in a fashion that is environmentally appropriate," he said.