Lincoln County OKs developer’s water plan

Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2005 | 11:06 a.m.

The Lincoln County Commission last week approved an agreement that appears to allow a powerful Nevada developer to use a Las Vegas water agency's planned pipelines to move water about 130 miles to his new development.

The only problem with the agreement is that the Southern Nevada Water Authority, which is to build the pipelines to carry water from rural Nevada to the urban area in the south, is not a party to the agreement, and may never be.

"We are not going to sign that agreement," said Vince Alberta, Water Authority spokesman. "We saw that agenda item for the first time after it was posted."

The agreement passed by the Lincoln County Commission, acting as the Water District, on Sept. 6 states that the county would support the cooperative water project building the pipelines through Lincoln County "so long as an agreement is reached between the (Water) District and the (Water) Authority to provide water developed and produced within Lincoln County to the Coyote Springs Development ..."

Essentially, the agreement would allow powerful Nevada attorney, lobbyist and developer Harvey Whittemore to move water that Whittemore owns from a ranch in northern Lincoln County to his development at Coyote Springs, which straddles the Lincoln-Clark county line about 60 miles north of Las Vegas. Construction work has begun on a community that is expected to include at least 50,000 homes.

The document states that "approval of this agreement is conditioned upon the District and Authority entering into an agreement for the benefit of CSI (Coyote Springs Investments) and the CSI Development that is mutually acceptable to all parties."

No cost or payment is specified in the agreement, but Pat Mulroy, Water Authority general manager, said her agency will not subsidize the Coyote Springs project. She noted that while Lincoln County passed the "agreement," the Water Authority is under no obligation.

"It usually takes two to tango," Mulroy said. "We want to be cooperative with Lincoln, but we cannot subsidize that development.

"We don't service developers. We are a wholesale agency."

The Water Authority serves as the wholesale provider for nearly all of Clark County's 1.8 million residents and millions of visitors, but local distributors deliver the water to homes and businesses. What the Water Authority plans to build, however, would be essential for Whittemore and Lincoln County to move large volumes of water around.

In an effort to develop alternatives to Colorado River water, the Water Authority plans to tap dozens of wells in Lincoln and White Pine counties, and deliver the water to Las Vegas through a network of pipelines. The Water Authority and Lincoln County agreed last year to cooperate in the construction of the pipelines in Lincoln County.

Mulroy noted that it would not make sense to build two pipelines across Lincoln County, but she added that Lincoln County would have to pay for the pipeline capacity and environmental impact studies that would involve moving Lincoln County's water to another part of Lincoln County.

If Whittemore were to use the pipeline, Lincoln County would have to pay those costs, she said.

"We would deliver it to Lincoln County," Mulroy said of the water. "If they choose to deliver it to Harvey, that is their business ... That's between Lincoln County and Harvey Whittemore. They have to pay for their share of the pipe. This is not going to be a giveaway.

"Where Harvey is going to get the water to serve Harvey's project is Lincoln County and Harvey's problem."

Whittemore said Coyote Springs, or specifically the Coyote Springs General Improvement District created by the Legislature in the last session, would bear the ultimate cost for pumping his water through the pipeline.

"We have already agreed to all that" in negotiations with Lincoln County, he said.

Rhonda Hornbeck, Lincoln County commissioner and chairwoman of the Water District, said the agreement does not represent a finished product.

"The agreement has not been presented to the SNWA," Hornbeck said. "It is just barely in the early stages. We have not gone into negotiations with Southern Nevada."

Whittemore, she said, "wants to make sure he can utilize the water he purchased."

Earlier this year Whittemore announced that he had purchased land and water rights at the Geyser Ranch in excess of 40,000 acre-feet, enough to satisfy most of the needs for the development of 43,000 acres at Coyote Springs. Whittemore also asked the state engineer to approve a plan to bring a similar amount of applications for new water rights into play.

Whittemore said he has "senior, approved and certificated" rights to about 40,000 acre-feet annually from the Geyser Ranch area that he would send down to Coyote Springs. He has applications for another 35,000 acre-feet or so. If approved by the state engineer, that water would stay in the Geyser Ranch area for use there, Whittemore said.

Clark County, home to about 1.8 million people, uses 300,000 acre-feet annually from the Colorado River.

Confusing an already complex situation, while Lincoln County is negotiating with Whittemore to bring the purchased water rights to Coyote Springs the same county is simultaneously formally protesting before the state engineer the applications for additional water.

"Whittemore outright purchased water he has right now," Hornbeck said. "I can't stop a man from doing what he's going to do with his own water."

But Lincoln County has senior water rights nearby the Geyser Ranch and wants to protect those rights from the additional applications, she said.

Hornbeck said an existing plan to sell Lincoln County water in Kane Valley, virtually next door to Coyote Springs, is still in place, as are plans to develop groundwater resources in Tule Springs in southeastern Lincoln County to support development near Mesquite.

Hornbeck and Mulroy agreed that one part of the erstwhile agreement would benefit both sides: Lincoln County would withdraw its efforts to develop water in some parts of the county that would have complicated the Water Authority's ongoing efforts to develop a federally required environmental impact statement for the pipeline project.

Federal administrators had warned that the environmental impact statement could be delayed by two years or more if Lincoln County's requests were included into the environmental studies that began last year.

Hornbeck said negotiations with both Whittemore and the Water Authority are continuing. However, she suggested that the cost of carrying Whittemore's water from the north part of Lincoln County to Coyote Springs may not be her county's ultimate responsibility.

"Lincoln County will not be responsible for anything monetary for anything Harvey does with the Southern Nevada Water Authority," Hornbeck said. "That will be Harvey's burden and not Lincoln County's."

One Lincoln County resident criticized the county commission for both the process and the "agreement" to move the water. Louis Benezet, a frequent critic of the commission, said he wasn't able to see the document until the day of the county commission meeting last week.

"I can't even find out what they're doing when I show up for the meeting," Benezet said. "I have a gripe with the process."

He noted that the county had originally planned to sell Coyote Springs water from Kane Springs. It is not clear now if Lincoln County will now sell the water, and how or if the county would profit from the pipeline deals, he said.

"It's almost like everything they were planning to do in June was stopped and put on hold to further the pipeline," Benezet said. "To me it's confusing, and as a citizen I feel like I've been left out of the picture."

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