White Pine County residents seek help from Reid

Monday, May 2, 2005 | 11:01 a.m.

Unlike a similar effort in Lincoln County, the Southern Nevada Water Authority may not have a powerful ally when it comes to putting wells and pipelines in White Pine County.

Residents of White Pine County, dozens of whom unanimously opposed the Water Authority's plans at two federal hearings last week, believe that they can kill the Las Vegas agency's plans if they have Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., on their side. Reid staffers said Friday that they will not introduce legislation that would establish rights-of-way for the Water Authority if the people of White Pine County do not want them.

However, the staffers, including Kai Anderson, Reid's deputy chief of staff, were quick to add that the senator would not impede the Water Authority's ongoing efforts to win administrative approval for the rights-of-way from the federal Bureau of Land Management in White Pine County.

The Water Authority hopes to eventually bring almost 200,000 acre-feet of water from rural parts of Nevada to Las Vegas to satisfy the growing need for water and to diversify the portfolio of water sources used for the urban area, which now takes about 90 percent of the resource from the drought-threatened Colorado River. The Water Authority, which uses 300,000 acre-feet annually from the river, hopes to begin bringing the new ground water from wells and pipelines to Las Vegas within a decade.

The Water Authority plans have engendered significant opposition in White Pine County, with a population of about 9,000, but the plans have strong political support in Lincoln County, with a population of fewer than 4,000. Last year Reid and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., joined the rest of the Nevada delegation in backing a lands bill that set aside rights-of-way for the Water Authority in Lincoln County.

Last year's federal legislation affecting Lincoln County's water future came after the water authority and the Lincoln County Commissioners forged a deal that would split the water in the rural county three ways. About one-third would go to Las Vegas, one-third to Lincoln County needs and the water authority would have the ability to purchase the last third.

The deal and the subsequent federal legislation had the support of the entire Lincoln County board. Anderson said the difference between White Pine and Lincoln counties is the level of support for the water authority's plans.

Reid will not support a legislative effort if the political leadership of White Pine County does not want the wells and pipelines, he said. But Reid also would not support legislation that would block the already ongoing effort to win state and federal approval for those wells and pipelines in White Pine County.

"If you are talking about the Southern Nevada Water Authority's ongoing effort to get a right-of-way in White Pine County, we don't have a role in that," Anderson said. "That is an administrative effort.

"We're not going to do what the county leaders don't want."

J.C. Davis, Water Authority spokesman, said his agency would be happy to take legislation setting aside rights-of-way in White Pine County, 250 miles to Las Vegas' north. But the lack of legislation will not kill the ongoing process to get the rights from the BLM or rights to pump water from the Nevada State Engineer.

"We're going to continue to move forward with both the environmental and water rights processes," Davis said. "While identifying a utility corridor such as the one in the Lincoln County lands act would have increased the efficiency of the environmental analysis, not having it would not be a significant impediment to the project."

Gary Perea, a White Pine County commissioner and staunch opponent of the Water Authority's plans, said the battle for now is in the hearings on the environmental impact being conducted by the BLM. One of those hearings is scheduled for Wednesday in Las Vegas.

"Basically, the way they're moving with this process, it's not going to be handled through the Legislature, it's being handled administratively," Perea said.

Perea said that while he appreciates Reid not coming out in favor of wells and pipelines in White Pine County, he would also like Nevada's senior senator -- and Senate minority leader -- to come out more strongly in line with the opposition.

"I think we all understand the politics of Nevada and where the political power is," Perea said, referring to the disproportionate clout that the Las Vegas area has in terms of population and votes. "I would hope that at some point we would see Sen. Reid stand up and help White Pine County."

Perea said he hopes to meet with Reid during a planned Reid visit to White Pine County this summer.