New application seeks more water from rural valley

Tuesday, May 11, 2004 | 9:19 a.m.

The Southern Nevada Water Authority has asked the state to approve seven more wells near the site of other planned wells that sparked opposition throughout much of Nevada and California.

The Water Authority filed seven more applications in Clark County's Indian Springs Valley, west of the Tikaboo and Three Lakes valleys. The agency last month defended applications for water from those valleys in a contentious Carson City hearing.

The requests go to Nevada State Engineer Hugh Ricci, who makes a final determination on the availability of the groundwater supply.

The Water Authority, which is seeking new groundwater supplies to supplement its limited and drought-affected water supply from Lake Mead, must prove that it can draw the water without hurting the environment or existing water users.

March's hearings prompted protests from Nye and White Pine counties, the Sierra Club and other environmentalists, and federal agencies concerned about the impact the proposed wells would have on federally protected habitat.

As with the earlier applications, the state engineer's office would have to schedule hearings on the Water Authority's request. It can take months to schedule the hearings. The state engineer then can take most of a year to make a decision on the requests.

The new applications are for a total of 16,000 acre-feet yearly, nearly equal that of the earlier round of applications. The water, if fully approved by the state engineer, could provide enough of the resource for about 80,000 people.

"They're right next to Three Lakes, where the other applications are," said Vince Alberta, Water Authority spokesman. He said the Indian Springs Valley wells would hook up easily to a proposed $40 million pipeline envisioned for the Three Lakes and Tikaboo wells.

"It just made sense to us to at least consider that option," he said.

Alberta said the Water Authority would anticipate bringing water from Indian Springs Valley in 2007 or 2008, the same timeline planned for the other seven wells.

Jane Feldman, conservation chairwoman for the Las Vegas arm of the Sierra Club, said the further applications indicate that the Water Authority is aggressively going after groundwater.

"I'm pretty shocked by it," Feldman said. "Things are moving faster than I thought they would. Of course we know the drought is bad, but this is a wakeup call."

She said the Sierra Club, which is participating in a tour of Nevada later this month to raise awareness and opposition to the Water Authority's groundwater plans, would probably object to the seven new well requests.

Dennis Ghiglieri, conservation chairman of the statewide Sierra Club, said the immediate concern is the impact the wells would have on natural springs nearby, including springs in the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge.

Ghiglieri said the Water Authority should have raised the issue of this new round of applications during the hearings on the earlier applications in March.

"We just went through a whole week of hearings and there was no hint that they would be asking for more," he said. "Now they're doubling the amount of water. That's just amazing.

"We're concerned because there are no studies to show what the impacts are going to be," Ghiglieri said. "It's all (being) asked for on supposition. We need scientific studies, which tell us precisely how much water can be withdrawn without impacting existing water rights or water users."

Alberta said the Water Authority will continue to share information with those that oppose the agency's plans. He noted that the requests for groundwater are in the early stages, and the Water Authority will have to prove that the environment can sustain the planned water use.

Stakeholders include the federal agencies, local governments from Ely to Death Valley, and the state's environmentalists, Alberta said.

"This is very preliminary," he said. "There is a lot of work to be done. We will work with the same group of stakeholders we've worked with in the past."