Dispute could end in water rate hike

Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2001 | 10:42 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The Las Vegas Valley Water District says its customers will face "exorbitant cost increases" if it loses its battle to draw water from Lincoln County.

Charles Hauser, general counsel for the water district, has written a letter to state Engineer Hugh Ricci, asking him to deny Lincoln County's petition requesting the Las Vegas applications be turned down.

This is the latest salvo in the battle between the water district and Lincoln County and its partner, the Vidler Water Co., a private firm that is helping the county with its water resources.

Lincoln County wants to sell the water in its county for economic development.

Vidler is spending millions of dollars to develop water in Lincoln County to sell and then split the profits 50-50 with the county. The county, with the backing of Vidler, wants Ricci to dismiss all the water rights applications filed by the Las Vegas water district, which have been pending for years.

Hauser, in his Sept. 25 letter to Ricci, said the motion by Lincoln County "is nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt by Vidler Water Co. to appropriate the exact same water" and then sell it to Las Vegas.

The Lincoln-Vidler plan will mean "substantial profits" for the private company and will mean big rate increases for water users in Southern Nevada, Hauser said.

He told Ricci the public interest "clearly weighs against allowing Vidler's speculative water marketing scheme from proceeding."

But Dorothy Timian-Palmer, president of Vidler Water Co., based in Carson City, said today that Lincoln County isn't interested in selling any of its water outside the county.

Lincoln County, she said, is looking at its future growth needs.

"There is no water for Clark County," she said. "There is no profit (for Vidler) because Lincoln doesn't want to sell outside the county lines."

Lincoln County, she said, offered a negotiated settlement with the water district over splitting the water. But she said the water district officials didn't want to negotiate with Lincoln County because Vidler was in the picture.

"Clark County told Lincoln they didn't have time," to talk about a settlement, Timian-Palmer said. The proposal, she said, would have allowed Las Vegas to claim water in Coyote Springs but give Lincoln County the other water for its development.

Lincoln County, in its petition to dismiss the water applications of the district, said Southern Nevada doesn't intend to use the water until 2050, and at that time, Lincoln could sell the water to Las Vegas.