Editorial: Safeguard water as a public right

Saturday, April 3, 2004 | 7:02 a.m.

Who can blame Sandy Valley residents if they, in a paraphrase of the song "16 Tons," think that someday they may "owe their souls" to the Vidler Water Co.? This is about where it's going for the 2,500 residents of this border town 30 miles southwest of Las Vegas. Vidler is an aggressive company seeking to reap long-term profits by locking up rights to water in the Southwest, particularly in Nevada and Arizona.

Nevada law puts the state engineer in charge of approving applications for ground water. Typically, the applications come in from landowners who want to raise their families in a rural area not served by a municipal water company. Nevada businesses often apply for ground water too -- enough to run their operations.

In Sandy Valley, however, Vidler has come in with an entirely different motive. Over the past four years, the company has bought land there and has applied to the Nevada state engineer's office for permission to build industrial-sized wells that would together draw more than 4,000 acre feet a year (a family of five can live for a year on one acre foot). Residents, who collectively use only 2,000 acre feet a year, are fighting as hard as they are able against the applications.

We support their fight. There is a grave danger to the public when a company such as Vidler comes along, buys land and applies for water rights -- for reasons entirely apart from traditional family and small-business use. Vidler envisions selling Sandy Valley's ground water to resorts in Primm, a growing Nevada town at Interstate 15 and the California border. Sandy Valley residents fear their wells running dry and being at the mercy of Vidler for their water.

The Sandy Valley situation is a sampling of what many areas of Nevada may experience in the years to come if the state does not develop a water policy that limits the power of aggressive and well-financed private companies seeking to cash in on water's scarcity. Vidler has already made inroads in Lincoln County, north of Clark County. A law passed by the 2003 Legislature allows it to partner with the Lincoln County Water District, meaning a profit margin will be built into all projects developed by the partnership.

The Southwest, particularly Nevada and Arizona, is dry and getting dryer because of population growth and drought. By gaining vast water holdings now, Vidler would be well situated in the decades to come. Vidler is part of PICO Holdings Inc., based in La Jolla, Calif. In a review of its first-quarter performance last year, PICO's president and chief executive officer John Hart wrote:

"Our largest business, Vidler Water Co., is the leading private water resource developer in the Southwest. ... Vidler's operations are concentrated in Nevada and Arizona, arid states which are leading the country in population growth and new home construction. ... (A U.S. Interior Department) study concluded that some of the biggest cities in the West are likely to experience conflicts over water by 2025. Cities accorded the highest priority where conflict is 'highly likely' include Las Vegas and Reno, Nevada. ... Typically, our water rights are the most practical and competitive source of additional water to support the growth of nearby municipalities." Hart went on to boast of the already-acquired company-owned water rights near Phoenix, Las Vegas and Reno.

So here we have a private company looking ahead and foreseeing a way to capitalize on our state's inevitable water shortages. Quite simply, it's hoping that the public is stupid enough to give away a resource that it will have to buy back later -- at top dollar. The governor and Legislature should also be looking ahead, seeing the same shortages and working to preserve the public's right to affordable water. So far Nevada State Engineer Hugh Ricci has acted responsibly in overseeing private water rights, but there may be a state engineer someday who believes strongly in the privatization of water. Our water is far too precious to fall into the hands of private corporations who see only profit. We need a state law making water a public commodity.