Speaking out on water plan

Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2005 | 8:32 a.m.

* What: Southern Nevada Water Authority board meeting

* When: 9 a.m. Thursday

* Where: 1001 S. Valley View Blvd.

Recommendations to pipe rural water to Las Vegas likely will spark a protest at a Southern Nevada Water Authority meeting Thursday from those who dislike the idea of their water being drained to support urban growth.

A group from White Pine County plans to protest the proposed development of wells in rural areas of the state, one of the recommendations to be discussed Thursday morning by a seven-member board of the water panel.

The recommendations, developed by an advisory committee last month, include more efforts to promote conservation of water in an effort to reduce per-person daily water use from the current 270 gallons to an average of 248.

The Integrated Water Planning Advisory Committee, which included 29 members from across the state, also recommended proceeding with plans to tap surface water from the Virgin and Muddy rivers.

The most controversial recommendations, however, virtually matched the Water Authority's existing plans to drill wells in rural White Pine, Lincoln and Clark counties and pipe the water to urban Las Vegas.

Gary Parea, a White Pine County commissioner, said he is planning to make the 245-mile trip to Las Vegas for the board meeting.

"The board's going to be making some pretty important decisions," Parea said. "Whenever you have to make important decisions like that, I think the responsibility falls on us to tell them what we think of that project.

"By us going down there, it will put a face on this issue to the Southern Nevada Water Authority board."

Jo Anne Garrett, a White Pine County resident who often wears a T-shirt telling the Water Authority to keep its hands off her aquifer, said a half dozen people plan to attend Thursday's meeting.

"We are hoping to ... advise them that we feel the recommendations of the advisory committee are not representative of either good science or good economics," she said.

Garrett compared the Water Authority's plans to the infamous water project orchestrated by Los Angeles that drained California's Owens Valley. She said Las Vegas would be better served by understanding and controlling its growth then by looking to rural areas for more water.

"This is a temporary fix," she said.

Vince Alberta, Water Authority spokesman, said the White Pine County residents are welcome to the public board meeting, as they were for the advisory committee meetings. However, he said, questions about Las Vegas' nation-leading growth rate are beyond his agency's purview.

"The mission of the Water Authority is to provide the necessary water resources for the community, and that's what we're doing," he said. "The responsibility and mission of this organization and our board is not to set policy relative to growth."

While "conservation and efficient water use is always going to be at the forefront of any resource planning we do," the advisory board essentially endorsed the existing resource plans from agency staff, he said.

"What we are attempting to do is to develop these projects throughout the state -- and there's more than one, there's several -- that will make us less dependent on the Colorado River and will diversify our water resource options and give us flexibility in the future."

Launce Rakecan be reached at 259-4127 or at lrake@lasvegassun.com.