Rural water citizens panel eyed

Friday, May 21, 2004 | 11:08 a.m.

The Southern Nevada Water Authority, battered by critics of its plans to develop wells and pipelines to bring groundwater to Las Vegas, may form a citizens' committee that would include representatives of the rural communities where the water -- and many of the critics -- are located.

The committee of more than two dozen people would provide input for the water authority's ongoing efforts to develop wells scattered throughout rural Clark, Lincoln, White Pine and eventually Nye counties.

Pat Mulroy, water authority general manager, said the advisory committee, if approved by the water authority board next month, would begin meeting in August and wrap up within one year.

Ranchers, environmentalists, federal agencies and the local governments of White Pine and Nye counties have formally protested the groundwater development plans. The water authority hopes to eventually bring up to 200,000 acre-feet of water from wells in rural areas to Las Vegas.

Authority officials say the groundwater is needed to reduce the urban area's near total dependence on Lake Mead water. Not only is Lake Mead's supply threatened by five years of drought, but the region's ability to take more water from the lake is limited by federal law and interstate compact. The drought has spurred the water authority to accelerate its plans to bring groundwater to Las Vegas, perhaps as soon as 2009.

Mulroy and other water officials have promised that the exploitation of water resources in rural parts of Nevada will not threaten existing water rights or the environment.

"If we are true to our word and we really want to develop this water supply cooperatively, they have to be involved from the ground floor," Mulroy said Thursday.

Mulroy said she understands the skeptics and critics.

"I don't blame them," she said. "There are legitimate issues that have to be addressed."

The goal of the citizens' committee is "not to pacify them, but involve them," she said, "to take their concerns into consideration in a way that nobody feels threatened."

Representatives from Mesquite, the Moapa Valley and Primm also would be on the committee, Mulroy said.

The water authority board would approve the members of the committee, except for those from Lincoln, White Pine and Nye counties, who would be selected by their county commissions.

Tim Perkins, a Lincoln County commissioner, said he welcomes the possibility of having a representative participate in the water authority's discussions.

"It's a good idea," Perkins said. "They have not, so far as I know, contacted us about it, but we would be happy to have somebody on that committee."

Of the rural areas, Lincoln County may present the least opposition to the water authority's plans. An agreement approved by the water authority and Lincoln County Commission last year essentially divided up groundwater resources in the rural county north of Clark County.

The drought and the efforts of the water authority will have an impact on Lincoln County residents, Perkins noted.

"We're going to have to work together to get through this drought thing," he said. "Everybody is going to have to work together."

Jack Norcross, a White Pine County commissioner, also endorsed the nascent committee.

"It's a great idea," he said. "It would give us input into the decision process. It will help relay what is going on in Southern Nevada to the people of White Pine County.

"Right now, we have no communication with the Southern Nevada Water Authority," Norcross said. "We're getting no information. We don't know anything."

Communication is essential if White Pine County is to have an impact on the plans to develop water resources in the rural area 200 miles north of Las Vegas, he said.

Under state law, White Pine does not control who gets the groundwater in the county. The state engineer is the arbitrator of that decision.

"We have some real concerns about what's going on and the future of White Pine County, but at the same time, we understand the water is owned by the state," he said.

The water authority has tried to open communications with the county, something that Norcross and two of his colleagues on the five-member White Pine commission support. But even talking to the water authority is a controversial proposal in the county of 9,000 residents.

The move to open talks with the Las Vegas area water agency has prompted a recall effort to remove Norcross from the county commission along with another commissioner and the county's district attorney.

Norcross said the recall threat does not take into account that the water authority will move forward with its plans -- with or without White Pine's cooperation.

"We're not by any token advocating Clark County or the Southern Nevada Water Authority coming up and taking our water," he said. "We need to have dialogue with the Southern Nevada Water Authority. We can't ignore them, and that's what some of the people up here are advocating."

Jo Ann Garrett, one of those advocates, said she supports the idea of the citizens' committee, even if the rural members are picked by county commissioners with whom she has disagreed with in the past.

Garrett, of White Pine County's town of Baker, is one of the leaders of the recall effort.

"It's good for people to talk to one another," she said. "It may be just a formality, or a gratuitous thing, but the principle is a good one. We have to figure this out together."