Friday, April 9, 2004 | 7:21 a.m.
WEEKEND EDITION
April 10 - 11, 2004
For more than a decade, the Southern Nevada Water Authority and its sister agency, the Las Vegas Valley Water District, have planned to draw water from White Pine, Lincoln, Nye and rural Clark counties.
While relying on Lake Mead to provide metropolitan Las Vegas with 90 percent of its water, officials knew someday they would need to tap farflung wells to slake the thirst of the burgeoning urban valley.
But five years of drought along the Colorado River, the lake's source, has threatened that primary water supply and spurred an accelerated pursuit of water from other areas.
And now that effort is fueling opposition.
Activists in Nevada's rural counties, their county governments and a host of environmental groups and federal agencies fear the plan could dry up the ranches and habitat of the state's vast rural areas.
Sharp divisions over proposals for urban Las Vegas to take water from rural parts of Nevada have sparked a recall effort aimed at three White Pine County elected officials who favor discussions with the Southern Nevada Water Authority.
White Pine Citizens for Proper Representation launched its drive last week. It is the latest move signalling what appears to be a rising level of concern among residents throughout much of rural Nevada over the water authority's long-range efforts.
The group has begun petitioning for a recall election of White Pine County commissioners Jack Norcross and David Provost and District Attorney Richard Sears. Organizers of the recall effort, including Jo Anne Garrett of the White Pine town of Baker, believe that the three officials could open the door to the loss of a critical resource.
"The worst thing? Vegetation would be lost, ranching would be lost, and we'd be up the creek," Garrett said.
Garrett said the group needs 766 signatures to force an election that could recall Sears and 899 signatures for elections to try to remove Norcross and Provost from office. The group has until early July to collect the signatures from the registered voters among the county's 9,000 or so residents. The Nevada Secretary of State on Friday was trying to determine the exact deadline for the signatures. It could be as soon as July 1 or as late as July 7, state officials said.
Proponents of the recall say the either date is just fine with them.
"Everyone involved is eager to get started" gathering signatures, Garrett said.
The water authorities in Southern Nevada are eager to get started too -- with their water plans.
At one time they had not planned to start drawing water from outlying areas until 2015 at the earliest. But the timetable now calls for the importing to begin within five years -- although the water from White Pine County, 200 miles north, could take years longer than closer groundwater sources.
Water authority planners estimate that the entire upstate region could supply 125,000 to 200,000 acre-feet of water per year to Las Vegas. About 300,000 acre-feet taken from Lake Mead now supply nearly all the water used by 1.6 million people in the Las Vegas urban area.
Harming county interests
Norcross, one of the two county commissioners targeted by the group, said the recall effort is designed to cut off all communications between White Pine County and the water authority, a move that would ultimately harm the interests of the county.
"We have agreed to talk to them," Norcross said. "That has offended some people."
Although the White Pine County Commission, with a 3-2 vote March 15, decided to continue discussions with the water authority, that does not mean White Pine County has made a commitment to the water authority or supports the water authority's applications for the water rights, Norcross said.
"There is a tremendous desire out there for White Pine County to do nothing," Norcross said. But inaction by the northern county won't block the water authority's drive, he warned.
"Right now we're not doing anything. The attitude from this group of citizens is to do nothing, and let's wait and see. We've had 20 years to wait and see. Now all the sudden we're up against the gun and we've got to play catchup.
"They (the water authority officials) are moving right along with it and making progress in White Pine County and going forward with their desire to do this," he said.
Norcross said if the water authority does win the right to draw water from White Pine County, the county government has a responsibility to the residents to get the best deal possible.
"I really view this as an opportunity to get some economic benefit and also get some contractual benefit," said Norcross, a native White Pine resident and businessman. "Without any agreement, the Southern Nevada Water Authority can just bulldoze all of White Pine County... We should be entitled to contractual protection and money value.
'Obligation to explore options'
"As a commissioner, I think we have an obligation to explore all of our options," he said. Ultimately, Nevada State Engineer Hugh Ricci will make the decision on the applications for the right to use groundwater throughout the state. Norcross noted that state law does not stipulate that any county "owns" the right to the water underneath it.
"No matter how many times you tell people it is not White Pine County's water, they do not seem to grasp it," he said.
Richard Sears, White Pine's district attorney, echoed Norcross.
"There's not one public official in White Pine County that is in favor of exporting water to Clark County, but we understand it is Nevada's water," Sears said. "It is not under our control. It is under the control of the state water engineer.
"I think that's the reason for a lot of the frustration that the citizens have," he said.
The frustration is shared by ranchers and water users south of the White Pine County line in Lincoln County. However, the water authority faces an easier time there. Lincoln County and the water authority agreed to settle their years-long dispute over water and divide up potential rights throughout the rural county.
Norcross said last year's deal was a bad one for Lincoln because the county would not receive any direct monetary compensation. He believes White Pine County could do better.
Opening the door
Garrett, with the citizens group backing the recall, also believes the deal in Lincoln that involved a private company, Vidler Water Co., was a bad one -- but worries that it could open the door to a similar agreement in White Pine County.
Pat Mulroy, water authority general manager, said the issues of Vidler Water Co., which is also attempting to develop water resources in White Pine County, and her agency's efforts have been unfairly linked.
"The two have gotten confused and intertwined," Mulroy said. "There is so much misinformation. There is so much confusion."
Garrett said as long as the Lincoln County-Southern Nevada Water Authority deal is in place, the water authority should begin its work in Lincoln County. That would provide evidence of the impact of the wells on the deep-water aquifers of the state, Garrett said.
Cutting a deal
"I'm sure that they thought they were doing the right thing," she said of her commission's decision to keep talking to the water authority. "But the commission seems to be hell-bent on cutting a deal."
Mulroy said any deal will never include a simple buyout of White Pine County's water future. Opponents, she said, need to know that if and when the water authority develops those water resources, the agency will maintain its connections and discussions with the residents of the county.
"What they (the opponents) are envisioning is an agreement of water for money," she said. "That alone is not going to work. Just writing a check is not going to work. There cannot be a severing, where they agree to something on day one and they're bound and severed from that water in perpetuity.
"In a perfect world, I would envision a formalized, continual process where the monitoring of the wells is done by us and representatives of White Pine County," Mulroy said. "It would be an ongoing, joint venture."
Despite the contentious decision to talk to the water authority, and the assurances from the agency, White Pine officials are not rolling over for their counterparts from Southern Nevada. The county and officials from the county seat of Ely joined officials from Nye County and from the federal government in opposing the water authority's efforts to win rights to groundwater in northwestern Clark County.
Week's worth of testimony
The hearings over about 17,000 acre-feet a year concluded last month after a week's worth of testimony from the water authority and the opponents. Ricci, the state engineer, said he should issue a decision later this year on how much, if any, water can be taken from a half-dozen wells in the region.
Opponents to the wells in rural Clark County as well as in other rural areas say that the water authority plans threaten groundwater resources up to hundreds of miles away.
Hydrologists and lawyers for the water authority disagree. They argue that supplies and the "recharge" of those supplies are adequate to permanently support the agency's proposed draw -- and that if any negative impacts do appear, the water authority is prepared to turn off those wells bringing water to Las Vegas.
Water authority officials, from Mulroy on down, have pledged to avoid drying up neighboring counties in the name of slaking Las Vegas' growing thirst. Water authority spokesman Vince Alberta said much of the concerns are misplaced and premature.
"There are a lot of questions and a lot of speculation on this whole conceptual program," Alberta said. He promised that the water authority will hold open public hearings and conduct full environmental reviews before water in White Pine County or elsewhere is extracted.
'Concerted effort'
"There will be a concerted effort to have this dialogue in a public forum and with open, two-way communication," he said. "We welcome all stakeholders to the process, those who live directly in these areas and those who do not."
That includes White Pine County, where officials from the water authority presented information on their plans in January and plan to go back with regular updates, Alberta said.
"We have made a commitment to periodically go in front of the commission and give them updates on where we are in this process at least once every six months," he said.
Mulroy agreed, noting that the water authority is years away from actively drawing on the county's groundwater.
"There's a lot more communication that has to be done with the people of White Pine County," she said. "I don't blame them for being suspicious. The burden of proof resides with us."
But residents of the economically strapped counties to the north, including White Pine County, could see tangible benefits from the south's water drive, Alberta said.
"Many people will see the benefits on both sides of these projects," he said, although the exact form of that benefit to the people of White Pine County hasn't been determined.
Garrett said that the water authority's proposal already has brought people together -- but not to help the agency's efforts.
Environmentalists and ranchers, groups that have sometimes clashed, now are unified in their concern about the water authority's plans, she said. She'd like that unity to include more people from the urban areas of Las Vegas and Reno.
"There is a nice coalition building," Garrett said. "I don't like to pit the rurals against Las Vegas. We have to get along."
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