House OKs bill to tap rural water

Benjamin Grove

Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2004 | 11:15 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- House lawmakers approved Monday a Lincoln County lands management bill aimed in part at tapping water in the rural county for transport to the parched Las Vegas Valley.

The bill would give the Southern Nevada Water Authority land it needs for a 299-mile water pipeline corridor between Clark and Lincoln counties. Under Nevada law, Clark County has rights to some water in Lincoln County.

New water sources are desperately needed as seven Western states continue drawing -- and in some cases fighting -- over the declining Colorado River.

"As drought continues in the West and our state continues to grow, the development of in-state water resources grows increasingly important," Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., said in a floor speech. The House passed the bill a few minutes later in a voice vote.

Jane Feldman, a local Sierra Club activist who is opposed to the Southern Nevada Water Authority's efforts to as much as double the amount of water available for the urban area through the exploitation of rural resources, said the bill fails to study the full impact of the agency's plans.

"We're concerned about the water exportation that's included in that bill," she said. "The water study that is included is still not going to look at the impact on the entire aquifer.

"I just don't know how we know what we're doing until we look at the whole picture," Feldman said.

Vince Alberta, a water authority spokesman, said the study provisions that are included in the House bill go too far. He said what is needed now is to move ahead and drill test wells to see what impact draws of the water will have on existing resources.

"We do have some concerns about doing more studies in Lincoln County," Alberta said. "There's been a number of studies that have been done by Lincoln County, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Nevada Legislature.

"We feel that there is enough data to have an educated discussion and move forward. At some point you have to start drawing water from the basin and see what impact it has. The only way you're truly going to know the impact is when you start drawing water from that basin.

"More studies are not going to help that."

Some have said the act would unfairly benefit Harvey Whittemore, a developer and gaming lobbyist who owns 42,000 acres 60 miles north of Las Vegas along U.S. 93. Nevada's congressional members have said the provision simply aligns the 11-mile utility corridor with a water utility corridor just west of U.S. 93.

In a deal announced Monday, Pardee Homes purchased 2,000 acres, with the option to purchase up to 15,000 acres from Whittemore for the development of a 30,000-acre master-planned community that could boast up to 50,000 homes. Whittemore said the act, which still must pass the Senate and avoid a presidential veto, was not a condition of the Pardee purchase.

"It was important, but it was not the most important thing," he said.

Whittemore said the utility line already reaches the western edge of his property.

The legislation also paves the way for between 87,000 and 90,000 acres of federal land sales, creates an off-road vehicle trail, transfers federal land to Lincoln County for parks and protects about 770,000 acres for wilderness study areas.

"This bill will raise the private property tax base a modest amount while also preserving an unprecedented amount of land as wilderness," Gibbons said. Under the bill, about 3 percent of the county's land would be privately owned, up from 2 percent.

Gibbons, Porter and Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., urged their colleagues to support the bill. Gibbons called the legislation a model for compromise among Nevada's Republican and Democratic lawmakers in Congress, and among disparate groups that often quarrel over the best uses for federal public lands.

Still, not everyone is pleased. Some environmental groups are opposed to Las Vegas siphoning water from rural Nevada.

Also, the bill does not protect the Pahranagat Range in southwest Lincoln County, said Brian O'Donnell, an activist with the Nevada Wilderness Coalition. But O'Donnell said he was happy that several proposed wilderness areas comprising about 50,000 acres had been mostly replaced after being stripped from the bill.

"It was a mixed bag," O'Donnell said.

The bill once again protects the Mt. Irish area, although 2,700 acres smaller than originally proposed, according to Gibbons aides. And protections for the Big Rock area, a favorite of hikers and rock climbers, were replaced, although the protected area is about 900 acres smaller than originally proposed. A proposed protection for the East Mormons area was left out of the bill, but another section of the Mormon Mountains was extended to protect a tortoise habitat.

The bill's future is uncertain as Congress rushes to finish business this week in order to break for an election recess. A lame-duck session is likely after the Nov. 2 elections.

The Senate version of the bill is still in committee. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he was trying to move the legislation to the floor for a vote as quickly as possible, he said Monday.

Sun reporters Launce Rake and Jennifer Shubinski contributed to this story.