Vidler seeks more Sandy Valley water

Monday, March 29, 2004 | 11:43 a.m.

Sandy Valley residents, already fighting the Vidler Water Co. over water rights in their dry and dusty valley, now find themselves battling the company on a second front.

Vidler, the Reno-based water company that develops water resources for profit, purchased land from North Valley Holdings early last year, and has applied to draw 1,000 acre-feet a year from a new well outside Sandy Valley. It is the latest in a series of applications the company has made for water near the unincorporated Clark County town of about 2,500 people, and residents of the town say the company's steady stream of separate efforts to acquire groundwater is wearing them down.

Cumulatively, the company has asked for more than 4,000 acre-feet, about double what the entire community uses now.

Early last year the company applied for the rights to about 2,000 acre-feet from a separate well. Two years ago the company tried to win the right to draw 1,400 acre-feet from another site outside the town.

State Engineer Hugh Ricci, the arbitrator of how much water can be pumped from Nevada's ground, ruled in 2002 that the company could only take 415 acre-feet in the earlier application. That decision was appealed by both Vidler, which wants more, and Sandy Valley residents, who want the amount reduced or eliminated.

The water Vidler seeks is destined for industrial uses in Primm, along Interstate 15 in the southwest part of the county. Residents of Sandy Valley say they are running out of patience and money to deal with the stream of applications.

"They (Vidler) are going to chip away and build it up until they have enough to justify a pipeline to Primm," said Joy Fiore, a Sandy Valley resident and retired geologist. "And then they will suck us dry.

"I am discouraged for the first time since this thing started four years ago. We are being assailed by a large corporation that is intent upon ruining our lives."

The residents, Vidler and the state engineer are scheduled to go to a settlement conference next week. If no settlement comes out of their discussions, the issue could go to the Nevada Supreme Court.

"Hopefully, during our settlement conference, all these issues can be addressed and settled," said Dorothy Timian-Palmer, Vidler chief operating officer. "We are going in with the best of intentions."

Fiore said she is hopeful but not optimistic that a resolution can be found, and the Sandy Valley side is preparing for a long legal fight.

"We feel threatened right now because the state engineer is continuing to accept water applications," Sandy Valley resident and community activist Beth Bacher said. "Our concerns center around the privatization of public water and how it will impact the entire state of Nevada, and particularly Sandy Valley."

Vidler representatives have not made any secret of their hopes to move water from rural and agricultural areas to urban developments throughout the West, and particularly in Nevada, where Vidler's sister company is the state's largest private landowner.

The company is perhaps best known for its partnership to develop water resources with Lincoln County north of Clark County, but it has a presence throughout virtually the entire state. Company representatives say they are playing by the rules.

Any new groundwater draw has to be approved by the state engineer, who must decide if new wells will significantly damage existing water rights or the habitat. While Ricci's approval of 415 acre-feet for the company is disputed by both sides, Vidler's hydrologists believe there is much more of the natural resource available.

"There's a lot of water in Sandy Valley," said Vidler attorney Karen Peterson.

Peterson and Timian-Palmer said the evidence of that claim comes from California, just across the state line that defines Sandy Valley's western edge. According to the state engineer, more than 8,000 acre-feet annually is pumped from the same aquifer but on the California side of the line.

Peterson said the pumping has gone on for decades without hurting the Nevada side's water level.

"There has been no water level decline in Sandy Valley," she said.

The Sandy Valley residents dispute Ricci's numbers and conclusions, and they say that the state engineer did not adequately consider the impact the California wells have on the valley's aquifer.

Because those issues are at the heart of the settlement discussions and an eventual court action, Ricci said he cannot discuss them in detail.

In the past, Ricci and his staff have insisted that they make their decisions based on available data, and they have often allowed applicants only a fraction of their requests and simultaneously required monitoring to see if those draws affect the existing water supplies.

Vidler's newest application "is a whole separate issue that hasn't been considered," Ricci said.

As for last year's approval of the 415 acre-feet, "We looked at what the existing rights were, and what the additional development rights might be in the valley," he said from Carson City, where he was hearing another controversial issue involving groundwater applications by the Southern Nevada Water Authority. "I'm going to have to let the ruling stand for itself."