State postpones hearings on bid for more water

Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2003 | 9:30 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- State Engineer Hugh Ricci has postponed hearings on the bid by the Las Vegas Valley Water District to gain an additional 17,000 acre-feet of underground water from valleys in Clark and Lincoln counties.

To give the district and the opponents of the bid more time to prepare their cases, the week-long hearings won't begin until March 22, Ricci said. They had initially been scheduled for January.

The applications filed by the water district in 1989 are being protested by the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, the Moapa Band of Paiute Indians, Nye and White Pine counties, the Lund Irrigation and Water Co. in White Pine County and Inyo County in California.

If Ricci grants the applications, Vince Alberta, public information officer for the water district, said the eventual plan is to pipe the water to the urban area to take care of the growing population's water needs in the face of possible continued drought.

Paul Taggart, attorney for the water district, noted that Lincoln County and the district reached an agreement earlier this year. Although part of the water would be drawn from Lincoln County, that county will not protest. In return the water district has withdrawn its applications to draw water from other valleys in Lincoln County.

While Lincoln County has withdrawn its protests to the application, White Pine and Nye counties have not. The water district also filed applications to draw water from those counties.

Alberta said there have been talks with officials from these two counties but no agreements have been reached. He said their protests were "not unexpected."

These two rural counties, he said, want to "protect their rights to provide input" at the hearing.

Susan Joseph-Taylor, chief of the hearing section in Ricci's office, said the state engineer received calls from the parties that the original two days scheduled for the hearing in January did not give them adequate time to prepare and there was not enough time set aside to present their cases.

She said Ricci decided to postpone the hearing "to assure every participant felt adequately prepared." Ricci said the protestants will present their case first and then the water district will outline its evidence.

Ricci is expected to make a decision late in 2004.

This application is just one of several avenues the district has pursued to keep up with Southern Nevada's growth and dry conditions.

Albert said the district has rights for 100,000 acre-feet of water from the Muddy and Virgin rivers annually. He said there has not been a decision as to whether to pipe the water to Las Vegas or let it flow into Lake Mead and then withdraw it.

There are federal hurdles to overcome before the district could withdraw the water from Lake Mead.

There are 250,000 acre-feet of water banked in the ground in the Las Vegas Valley, Alberta said. And he expects that 25,000 acre-feet will be added to that because of conservation efforts by Las Vegas Valley residents.

Nevada is entitled to 300,000 acre-feet a year from the Colorado River but the state has not used all of that this year because Clark County residents cut back on their water use, he said.

In addition, there are 116,000 acre-feet stored in Arizona for use by the water district.

An acre-foot of water is enough water for a family of four for a year.