Water Authority makes deal on rural test wells

Friday, Nov. 19, 2004 | 9:47 a.m.

The Southern Nevada Water Authority board approved an agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Moapa Valley Water District and developer Coyote Springs Investment that allows the Water Authority to build wells and pipelines on rural areas north of Las Vegas.

The agreement allows the Water Authority to test how much water it can draw from Coyote Springs, about 60 miles north of Las Vegas on the Clark County-Lincoln County line, without hurting the environment or existing water supplies.

Kay Brothers, Water Authority deputy general manager, said the Nevada state engineer, who regulates groundwater rights, ordered a test pumping of at least half of the authority's 9,000 acre-feet rights to determine if the project will hurt the existing supplies. The tests also are needed to determine if extracting the water will hurt the springs that provide the endangered Moapa dace with habitat.

About 1,000 of the fish, which grow to just a few inches long, live in the upper reaches of the Muddy River. The national environmental group Defenders of Wildlife has promised a court fight to block the well-testing program, arguing that drawing water from Coyote Springs wells will further jeopardize the species.

The Water Authority board authorized $1.25 million for protection and recovery of the Moapa dace as part of the agreement.

If the supply of water holds out, the authority hopes to eventual draw as much as 36,000 acre-feet a year from the area, enough to supply 50,000 families with water.

In other action Thursday, the board approved an updated capital improvements program that calls for a new project that will allow the agency to divert more water from deeper in Lake Mead to the Alfred Merritt Smith Water Treatment Facility.

Marc Jensen, Water Authority engineering director, said the move is necessary to respond to falling water levels in Lake Mead caused by the drought. The construction project accounts for about $20 million of a $41.6 million increase in the final costs of the 30-year capital improvements program, bringing the total to a projected $1.982 billion.

The rest of the $21.6 million goes to various system improvements.

The total projected cost of the capital improvements program is still less than the $2.098 billion authorized in 1995 for the program, which is designed to keep pace with Southern Nevada's water needs through 2025. The program, which does not include the agency's efforts to bring rural water to Las Vegas, is funded by regional connection charges, regional water charges, a portion of receipts from sales of federal public lands in Clark County and a quarter-cent sales tax destined to expire in 2025.

Clark County voters in 1998 voted to approve the sales tax by a 72 percent margin.