Tuesday, March 23, 2004 | 11:09 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- The federal government wants years of studies before the state allows the Southern Nevada Water Authority to pump water from rural valleys to serve the growing population of Las Vegas.
Representatives of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service offered testimony Monday opposing the applications to draw about 17,000 acre-feet of water a year from two valleys north of Las Vegas.
The hearing before state Engineer Hugh Ricci opened Monday with those protesting the application presenting their cases first. Next, the water authority and the Las Vegas Valley Water District will outline their case.
Kay Brothers, deputy director of the water authority, said there is available water in the Three Lakes and Tikaboo valleys and that Ricci should grant the applications without the delay of the study. She said the authority and the water district have no objections to having the water monitored and said if there is a problem, a solution can be found.
Brothers is scheduled to testify later in the hearing when the authority makes its case.
In the midst of a drought and facing the continued booming growth, the water authority is looking for new sources of water. The 17,000 acre-feet of water would be enough for about 85,000 people.
The federal agencies were joined by the Sierra Club, Nye County, Inyo County in California and the Lund Water Company in White Pine County in protesting the application.
Dennis Ghiglieri, representing the Toiyabe Chapter of the Sierra Club, said: "Let's not create another Owens Valley in rural Nevada," referring to the rural area in California that pumps water to Los Angeles.
Ghiglieri said no water right "should be granted until there is an independent study of groundwater in shallow and deep carbonate aquifers under this region to determine the amount of water, if any, that can be sustainably exported."
He suggested Southern Nevada expand its water conservations efforts.
"Las Vegas could begin working with coastal cities to develop desalinization projects to allow it to use additional amounts of Colorado River water from Lake Mead," he said.
Both Three Lakes and Tikaboo valleys lie partly in Clark and partly in Lincoln counties.
Henry Neth, chairman of the Nye County Commission, said there was "insufficient study" to justify allowing the water to be pumped. He said his county also faces a population in Pahrump that has grown from 15,000 to 35,000 residents in 10 years.
Most of the day was devoted to the federal witnesses.
Michael Eberle of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said there should be no approval by the state "until there is sufficient monitoring and modeling that show there is no impact on existing water rights."
Fish and Wildlife Service officials are worried about the impacts on the 1.6 million-acre Desert National Wildlife Range; the 23,500-acre Ash Meadow National Wildlife Refuge; the 5,380 acre Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge; and the 106-acre Moapa Valley National Refuge.
Dick Birger, project leader of those areas, said his job is to protect and preserve the bighorn sheep, endangered wildlife and threatened plants in those areas.
Jack Pettee, chief of water rights for the National Park Service, said it submitted protests 15 years ago when the applications were filed and that nothing has changed.
The park service, he said is concerned that drawing water will affect Death Valley and the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. He said it could lead to less water in Devil's Hole where pupfish live and less water for the Muddy River that feeds the recreation area.
The Southern Nevada Water Authority, he said, is still uncertain how much water is available in these two valleys.
"There is not a whole lot of data collected in these areas," he said.
He said a test program was needed to determine the amount of water available and how long it could be pumped without affecting groundwater levels.
Robert Boyd, a hydrologist for the BLM in Las Vegas, said his agency is concerned about the 37,000-acre Ash Meadows, where there are sensitive plants that depend on shallow groundwater. He said the agency is also worried about the survival of the Mesquite tree that depends on shallow groundwater in the 7,000-acre Amargosa-Mesquite area.
The staff of the state engineer asked Boyd about the BLM releasing large quantities of land in the Las Vegas Valley for development. They asked whether it was counterproductive for the federal agency to free up this land and then oppose water for future residents.
Boyd noted the state engineer's office would still have to approve the water rights for this land.
The water authority and the Fish and Wildlife Service presented an agreement at the hearing that called for monitoring wells to be drilled at various sites on the land of the federal agency. The water authority still wants to get permanent approval for the applications while the test wells are producing.
Five days have been set aside for the hearing before hearing officer Susan Joseph Taylor. The government is expected to complete its case today and attorney Paul Taggart, representing the water authority, will then start presenting his case.
Ricci is not expected to make a decision for several months.
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