Editorial: Avoid ‘us versus them’

Friday, June 10, 2005 | 6:24 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION

June 11-12, 2005

For more than 15 years the Southern Nevada Water Authority has been filing for water rights in White Pine and Lincoln counties north of Clark County. It has been steadily working toward the day when it receives permission from the state engineer to begin pumping groundwater from those counties to the ever-growing Las Vegas Valley.

Last week officials in six rural counties north of Clark, including White Pine, announced a plan to create their own water authority. The other counties involved are Elko, Esmeralda, Eureka, Lander and Nye. Their concern is that groundwater piped from Lincoln and White Pine will deplete groundwater resources from all of them. "We have a lot of water, but we want to make sure we keep it and that it doesn't go to the cities," Lander County Commissioner Mickey Yarbro said.

The rural counties have the right to unite and protect their resources. But it's important that coming negotiations do not take the form of a water war. There has to be a way of meeting Southern Nevada's future water needs, and preserving the central counties' way of life, without creating "us versus them" factions within the state. Even-tempered negotiations, in which each side's point of view is respected, is what will be necessary as this situation evolves.