LV water request worries rural residents

Thursday, June 3, 2004 | 11:29 a.m.

Indian Springs residents say they are worried that their wells could dry up if the state agrees to ship nearby groundwater to thirsty Las Vegas.

The Southern Nevada Water Authority has asked the state engineer for up to 16,000 acre-feet of groundwater to be drawn from the community of 1,392 residents about 35 miles northwest of Las Vegas. That amount of water could serve at least 20,000 homes in Las Vegas.

The water authority requested unallocated water rights in Indian Springs a month ago, water manager Ken Albright said Wednesday night during a town hall meeting that drew more than 75 people.

The demand from Las Vegas for more water is driven by the drought.

"This drought is the worst thing we've seen since the 1580s," Albright said, referring to scientific studies of tree rings that show past droughts. The water authority expects to have a drought emergency on its hands by Jan. 1, based on current climate and weather patterns, he said.

"It's really about the drought in Las Vegas," Albright said. The water authority believed it had plenty of water coming from the Colorado River, which supplies 90 percent of the Las Vegas Valley's water.

The five-year drought has accelerated the need to find a better balance in resources, he said, with perhaps 50 percent of the water supply coming from the Colorado River and 50 percent from groundwater, water banking and surface sources such as the Virgin and Muddy rivers.

"We're not trying to pull the wool over anybody's eyes," Albright said.

"No, you're trying to pull the water out from under us," Indian Springs resident Shari Buhan retorted.

Indian Springs Ranch attracts wildlife, such as migrating cranes, Buhan said. In addition to the community, residents are concerned that wildlands and wild animals will suffer.

The geology and the groundwater in Indian Springs have to be studied over a period of years, Albright said. The area doesn't have a lot of wells or information from them.

The water authority is planning to drill seven wells about a mile apart from each other near Cactus Springs, which is northwest of Indian Springs.

Albright assured the group that ranchers' and homeowners' wells would not lose groundwater, but residents said they had already seen a drop in water table levels in the past couple decades.

Longtime Indian Springs resident John Lewis, who has five wells on his property, said he has seen the water table drop from 23 feet below the surface to 47 feet in the past decade or so, a 24-foot drop.

Jewel Hardy bought her 3/4-acre spread in 1963. Within 10 years she said she had to drill another 150 feet deeper as Southern Nevada's population grew, she said.

"We need the water," Hardy said. "If they drill those wells, we'll go dry."

That raised another worry for Indian Springs residents. Will the extra pumping draw water contaminated with radiation from the Nevada Test Site, the boundary of which lies about 12 to 15 miles away?

"Is there any chance at all that pumping could bring that contamination down here?" asked rancher Jim Fisher.

Albright assured him that groundwater studies did not indicate any seepage or flow from the Test Site, where more than 1,000 above- and below-ground nuclear weapons were exploded between 1951 and 1992.

Town Board Chairman Mike Bingham said -- after a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation in the rear of the meeting room -- that if the water authority charged $5,000 per hookup, the Indian Springs water would be worth about $57 million to the water authority.

"It would sound a lot sweeter if $50 million came to Indian Springs," Bingham said.

Albright said that there were few details he could offer to share with the residents about the proposal, but federal and state environmental laws and regulations would have to be met.

Although state Engineer Hugh Ricci was quoted as saying that the Indian Springs water basin was already losing too much water from withdrawals, Albright said that how much water and where it was coming from had to be determined.

The water authority is prepared to walk away from the area if there is not enough groundwater for everybody, Albright said.

"We have a scientific disagreement with the state engineer," he said.

Native American tribes and Indian Springs Auxiliary Airfield will also be considered in the study of groundwater, Albright said.

Nellis Air Force Base spokesman Mike Estrada, who did not attend Wednesday's meeting, said earlier in the day that he hadn't heard of the water district's plans to dig new wells and draw more water from Indian Springs.

He said that it was something that Nellis officials would want to look into to determine if it would have any effect on operations at the Indian Springs Auxiliary Airfield.

"It would depend on how much water is down there and how much they take," Estrada said.

Indian Springs is the home of three remote-piloted Predator aircraft squadrons. Estrada said that the airfield could be the home of as many of five Predator squadrons in the future.