Water, power interests collide in heated debate

Friday, March 1, 2002 | 9:35 a.m.

Nevada and the West need power. The region also needs water. But where should the priority lie?

That question served as the focal point for a two-day conference downtown this week. Officials from the Southern Nevada Water Authority, the agency that supplies nearly all of Clark County's 1.5 million people with water for all purposes, said too many proposed power plants could dramatically affect the region's ability to continue growing.

Those building the power plants -- and Gov. Kenny Guinn's office -- responded that that the new plants are crucial to keeping electricity costs down and avoiding shortages such as those that hit California and Nevada last year.

Water Authority officials, including General Manager Pat Mulroy, said building all of the power plants proposed for Southern Nevada would lead to an energy glut. The so-called "merchant" plants would end up exporting power to California.

The problem, they said, is the proposed plants use water, often enough for thousands of residents. That water is needed to serve a population that grows by 60,000 or more annually.

The regional water agency is close to maximizing the water it can legally draw from Lake Mead, the source of most of the region's usable water. Already the agency is looking to ground water and other sources to satisfy the growing population of Southern Nevada.

But the power plants are competing for the same water. Essentially, the region would sacrifice growth to provide other parts of the country with electricity, Mulroy said.

Although only seven gas-fired plants have received, or are in the process of getting, state permits in Southern Nevada, perhaps a dozen more have been proposed.

Richard Wimmer, Water Authority deputy general manager, said many of the plants will never be built. Water availability is one of the limiting factors, he said.

The region, however, needs new power plants. Southern Nevada alone imports about half its electricity needs during hot summer months, when air conditioners are humming.

The Water Authority itself is investing in new plant construction to guarantee reliable access of power needed to pump water to its customers.

The scarcity should be over by fall 2004, when more than 5,000 megawatts of new power should be on line -- enough power for about 3 million people, more than the population of Nevada.

Mulroy said the "flood" of power plants proposed for Southern Nevada was "a hysterical reaction to the shortage" that helped provoke blackouts in the West.

"How much of our water do we give to power plants?" she asked water agency, private-sector engineers and power company leaders at the conference Thursday. "What benefit do Nevadans get by exporting water, which is no more than exporting power?"

"Just because Nevada is uninhabited doesn't mean power plants should go everywhere," Mulroy said.

Mulroy, following her address to the Nevada Water Resources Association, said she doesn't oppose all power plant production and that some new plants can be justified in terms of economic development -- especially investment and jobs for Nevadans.

But she said in the race for new plants adequate attention has not been paid to the drain on regional water resources.

Carl Linvill, Guinn's energy adviser, joined power company officials in defending the new plants.

They said the new plants are far cleaner and often use less water than older, inefficient coal and gas-powered generators. Older plants can be phased out as the new plants come on line, they said.

Having as many new power plants as possible also means cheaper electricity for the state's consumers, who have been battered by escalating energy costs, the plant advocates said.

"The more merchant power plants that get constructed and the more markets they can serve, the greater the likelihood your rates will go down," said Jim Rexroad, development manager for Mirant Energy, which is building an 1,100-megawatt plant about 15 miles northeast of Las Vegas -- and has other plants on the drawing board.

Rexroad said the development of power plants in Nevada brings investment and jobs, and is no different "from bringing a factory to town" that might produce products for other parts of the country. Some companies and the Water Authority have agreed on strategies to reduce the amount of water used to produce power.

Most of the new plants use "air-cooled" designs, which use just a fraction of the water needed by traditional water-cooled plants.

Air-cooled, natural gas power plants use enough water for 2,500 people but can provide enough power for 500,000 electricity customers.

But a water-cooled plant providing the same amount of power will use enough water for 35,000 people. A few such plants, some decades old, already operate in Clark County.

Water Authority officials say there will be no new ones in the county.

"We are not going to license any water-cooled plants," said Clark County Commissioner Myrna Williams, who serves on the Water Authority board.