Developer battles for rights to water

Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2001 | 11:36 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Lobbyist Harvey Whittemore, successful in pushing bills through the state Legislature, is now pitted against the federal government and the Las Vegas Valley Water District over the volatile issue of water in Southern Nevada.

Whittemore and major partner David Loeb have 42,800 acres of land north of Las Vegas that they hope to develop into a community of up to 50,000 homes and stores and offices. But available water is the key ingredient.

State Engineer Hugh Ricci starts hearings in Carson City Monday on the application by Whittemore's Coyote Springs Investors LLC for 15 wells to draw 108,000 acre-feet of water a year from deep carbonate aquifers that may hold millions of acre-feet.

"This is a large deal," said Ricci, who with Chief Hearing and Adjudication Officer Susan Joseph-Taylor, will preside over the hearings that could span two weeks.

Whittemore may be competing for the same water as the Las Vegas Valley Water District that wants to draw underground water from the Coyote Springs Valley to serve a growing urban population.

The project, east of U.S. 93 and north of State Route 168, is 50 miles north of Las Vegas.

Ricci said the issue is whether there is enough water for both projects. Or, he said, there may not be enough for either.

"We want to make sure we're right," said Ricci who, added that whoever loses will probably appeal to the courts.

Lining up against Coyote Springs Investors are the Water District, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Nevada Power Co. and the Moapa Valley Water District.

Whittemore won a preliminary procedural victory in the contest. The federal agencies asked that the Monday hearing be delayed. They said the applications of Whittemore should be held in abeyance until Ricci rules on the water sought by the Water District.

The federal agencies argued they would be presenting the same opposition to the Whittemore plans as they did to the water district. They suggested the hearing would be repetitive. And the agencies said Whittemore has failed to present any new scientific information that would help Ricci determine the amount of water that may be available.

Whittemore said he was "frankly stunned" by the request for delay. He and his partners have spent $33 million in buying the land, engineering consulting, legal, golf course design, telecommunications and land use and planning over three years. A delay costs the investors $1 million every six months.

He argued the allegation by the federal government about the lack of any new information is unsupported by the facts. "Try as it might, the federal government agencies are not the administrative agencies that have the responsibility to determine whether water applications are issued in this state," he said.

Joseph-Taylor denied the government's request for a delay.

The Whittemore-Loeb group, which acquired the land from Aerojet, also has 6,100 acre-feet of water rights. But it wants the additional 108,000 acre-feet. An acre-foot of water is enough to serve a family of four for a year.

The land is split with about one-third in Clark County and two-thirds in Lincoln County. Whittemore estimates the first phase of the project will cost between $75 million and $100 million, which would include the $33 million already spent. And it would have two golf courses.

If the permits are approved, Whittemore sees six to 10 golf courses on the site.

But how much water available is unknown. Some researchers believe there may be 800 million acre-feet stored in the thick rocks buried deep in eastern Nevada. In a description of the Coyote Springs project, the developers said, "It is uncertain how many of the ground water applications in Coyote Spring Valley can be developed without impacting the down-gradient Muddy River Springs in Upper Moapa Valley.

"The impacts of future ground water development in the carbonate aquifer will remain largely unknown until there are opportunities to evaluate responses to significant long-term ground pumping," the project developers said.

In a prior decision involving carbonate aquifers, Ricci served notice he is taking a go-slow approach. There is available water in the rock formations, but the amount is not known, he said in the earlier ruling in which the Water District wanted to pump added ground water in Garnet Valley and Hidden Valley.

Ricci said it was impossible to know if pumping water from the rock formations would hurt existing water rights or cause ecological problems. He granted the applications but ordered safeguards be established to offset any adverse effects. He directed the district to monitor the impact of the pumping and have plans in place to correct any problems.

In granting the applications for the carbonate aquifer drilling, Ricci said he would go on a basin-by-basin approach, rather than giving blanket approval.

The government, in its protests to the Whittemore project, suggested the proposed water rights might injure the vested rights in the Moapa National Wildlife Refuge, and there could be a possible reduction of water discharged in springs in the Lake Mead National Recreational Area.

Government lawyers said there could be "possible adverse effects on fish and wildlife species such as the endangered Moapa Dace that are dependent on spring discharge from the flow of the Muddy River."

These government agencies complain that the Whittemore group relied on the research of the water district on the available water in Coyote Springs.

The Water District has applied for 27,000 acre-feet from the Coyote Springs area. Ricci has only a day or two left in hearing the applications of the Water District.

Nevada Power, one of those that protested, said there is no unappropriated water in the Coyote Spring Valley. And the valley, according to utility vice president David Barneby, may be already over appropriated.

A decision is not expected for several months.