Agencies agree on sites for wells in wildlife refuge

Molly Ball

Thursday, June 10, 2004 | 10:04 a.m.

In the first meeting open to the public since discussions began in March on monitoring wells in the Desert National Wildlife Refuge, federal and local officials on Wednesday settled on some sites where drilling could occur.

The Southern Nevada Water Authority hopes the monitoring wells will show that water could be drawn from the area around the refuge and brought to drought-stricken Las Vegas. The sites most likely to be tested first are in the south part of the Tikaboo Valley, northwest of Las Vegas.

The authority and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which administers the refuge, agreed on a trio of sites to be tested, along with three others that could be drilled for monitoring if the Air Force allows it. The latter three sites appear to fall within the Air Force bombing range, which overlaps the refuge.

The meeting marked significant progress in the Water Authority's attempt to secure water rights from areas around the refuge. Environmentalists call that a disastrous prospect.

"Some of the sites have been chosen and agreed on," Michael Eberle, chief of water resources for the Wildlife Service, said after Wednesday's meeting. Eberle and representatives of the National Park Service, the U.S. Geological Survey and the Department of Defense participated in the meeting via conference call.

In Las Vegas, the Water Authority, the Geological Survey, the Parks Service, the wildlife refuge and Nellis Air Force Base participated, while environmentalists and members of the public were allowed only to observe.

Environmentalists say the monitoring wells, which would determine the nature and amount of water in the aquifer under the refuge area, are the first step down a slippery slope leading to full-scale drilling around the refuge, which they say would destroy the wildlife area's ecology.

The Wildlife Service says the proposed wells are only for monitoring and could contribute to scientific understanding of the preserved area. Of the 1.6 million acres of refuge, 1.3 million are proposed national wilderness, meaning they were nominated as wilderness by Congress but never approved.

"This is one of a series of ongoing technical meetings ... to see if a plan can be developed that will help us characterize the aquifer under the desert refuge," Richard Birger, project leader for the Desert National Wildlife Refuge Complex, told Wednesday's gathering. It was not a policy-setting or decision-making forum, he said.

But environmentalists said the so-called technical discussion was a way for the federal government to pave the way for its "destructive policies" without going through the required channels. By the time the public gets a chance to weigh in on whether to drill for water that lies the refuge, it will be a done deal, the activists alleged.

"We strongly feel the public consent should come first," said Brian Segee, staff attorney for the Defenders of Wildlife, who listened in on the meeting. "The question of whether or not the water authority should even be present on the refuge needs to be answered."

Instead, he said, the drilling is "building this incredible momentum on its own."

Sara Barth of the Wilderness Society, who attended the meeting, agreed that the collaboration between the water authority and the wildlife service was premature.

"It's not even clear to me that there is a legitimate public interest in having these monitoring wells on the refuge, period," she said.

Birger insisted he had not bypassed those concerns, but in the end it is his decision to make.

"I have the authority to determine whether an activity is compatible with the refuges in my complex," he said.

Water Authority officials "want to do certain things related to their need of supplying water, and we have the need to understand the resources we manage and also some constraints that we follow," Birger said.

While the refuge can't allow the authority to do things that are clearly forbidden, such as build roads in the proposed wilderness lands, it need not isolate itself completely, he said.

"We obviously have the interests of wildlife first, but ... if someone suggests a way of meeting our needs and still providing something else, I don't think it's reasonable to not even listen," he said.

For its part, the Water Authority says it is being conscientious by making sure the water rights it has applied for wouldn't have an adverse effect on the refuge.

"The opposition (to the plan) is that there would be an impact from any water that is drawn out of that area. We just want to monitor the impacts," said Ken Albright, the authority's director of resources.

"We don't suspect there are going to be impacts, but we have to see for sure," he said.

At the meeting, Jeff Johnson, senior hydrologist for the Water Authority, presented four possible scenarios in which three proposed wells in the south Tikaboo Valley would form a triangle, the best way for the scientists to understand the underlying plane of the aquifer.

But Eberle ruled out the authority's top three ideas, saying the locations of the proposed wells fell within the proposed wilderness area. The two agencies agreed to rehabilitate a well drilled in 1989 by the Geological Survey, which is currently blocked by a boulder.

They also agreed that a monitoring well could be drilled along an existing north-south road in the valley, since roadways are not considered part of the wilderness area. And officials agreed to visit the site to determine the extent of a road that branches out to the southeast, where a well could be drilled to complete the triangle.

The agencies agreed on a phased approach in which they would begin work on the triangle while simultaneously looking into three other proposed wells on Air Force land.

A Department of Defense official who participated in the conference call indicated that the sites, in Three Lakes Valley and Indian Springs Valley west of Tikaboo, might be located in the Air Force's bombing range. If so, the agencies might be allowed to enter the area only during one of two times: an annual sheep hunt and a period during which unexploded ordnance is collected.

The final decision on the Water Authority's applications rests with state Engineer Hugh Ricci. The agencies were scheduled to present their conclusions to him on June 22, but at Wednesday's meeting they agreed to ask for an extension, probably to Sept. 1.

The agencies also agreed to form a technical sub-committee that would decide engineering issues, such as how wide a hole each monitor drill would bore. The wells would ascertain water levels and chemistry; scientists would then use computer modeling to determine long-term effects on the aquifer.

The Water District hopes to draw about 17,000 acre-feet a year, enough water for perhaps 85,000 people, from the wells it wants to drill in the areas around the refuge."