Mulroy to offer money for White Pine water

Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2006 | 7:58 a.m.

For years Southern Nevada water officials have been battling for water in the state's rural counties. Today, they'll try to buy it.

Southern Nevada Water Authority General Manager Pat Mulroy goes to Ely today to offer officials in financially strapped White Pine County cash for their water.

Water Authority officials won't say how much money, but it likely won't matter.

"The money is not an issue," White Pine County Commissioner Gary Parea said. "The main thing we need right now is a base line. We need to know how much water is there.

"Until that is done, there isn't anything to negotiate. There's got to be some basis to work from, so that we know what the effects are when they do start pumping."

Parea said the dialogue should have begun long ago, and it should not begin with a cash offer but with basic information.

The Water Authority now is "opening up the dialogue about their concerns," agency spokeswoman Tracy Bower said.

Asked why the Water Authority is opening up the dialogue 17 years after filing applications for water rights in White Pine's Spring and Snake valleys, Bower repeated:

"That is what she (Mulroy) is going to do, open up the dialogue."

Parea and his family have been outspoken in their concern that the Water Authority's planned pumping, slated to begin in 2015 if it receives the needed state approval, would dry up the Snake and Spring valleys. Parea lives in Snake Valley.

The Water Authority is asking for state approval to take 140,000 acre-feet of water a year. An acre-foot is about enough water to supply a family of five in the Las Vegas Valley for a year.

Water Authority officials have long said it has models that prove there is water to spare in White Pine and neighboring Lincoln counties, but it has steadfastly declined to make those geologic justifications public. Agency scientists and management say they don't want to release that information because it could give an advantage to project opponents.

However, Parea said, the ability to analyze the Water Authority's proposal has been key, and its refusal to provide the information is one of the biggest elements in a growing list of unanswered questions about the agency's plans.

"They haven't provided us any information or data," he said. "We're supposed to analyze it. We're supposed to verify it. They're withholding it from White Pine County, from the Park Service and the BLM (Bureau of Land Management)."

White Pine County has been in financial disarray, and the state is overseeing all of its financial decisions.

But White Pine County Commission Chairman John Chachas said that whatever Mulroy is prepared to offer, his county is in a better position to turn her down this week than it was last week. On Monday Sierra Pacific Resources proposed building a multibillion-dollar complex of power plants near Ely. The company's plans would lift the county's foundering economic prospects, Chachas said.

"That's a whopper. That changes the perspective of how we approach Wednesday's (today's) meeting with the Southern Nevada Water Authority," Chachas said.

Despite reservations expressed by several board members, the Colorado River Commission of Nevada endorsed the Water Authority's rural water plan Tuesday. Ace Robison, who lives in Logandale but whose consulting firm works for Lincoln County, said he shares concerns about the effects of the rural water development.

Robison said that properly done, the project would help the frail economies and communities of Eastern Nevada grow.

Commissioner Marybel Batjer, a Harrah's executive and former chief of staff for Gov. Kenny Guinn, said she endorsed the rural water development proposal "with trepidation." She said she worried what effect the plans would have 20, 40 or 50 years from now.

"We don't have a crystal ball looking into the future," she said. "I wish I had that crystal ball so that I could see the long-term ramification of taking that water."

But Las Vegas partisans on the board successfully argued for unanimous endorsement.

"I think every provision has been put in place that could possibly be put in place to protect everyone involved," said Richard Bunker, former Clark County manager and past president of the Nevada Resort Association.

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

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