Water mines not in the cards

J. Patrick Coolican and Launce Rake

Sunday, May 14, 2006 | 7:14 a.m.

Nevada's mines make more than gold. They pump a lot of water from the ground, too, and that's a resource the state's urban areas might one day put to use.

Russ Fields, Nevada Mining Association president, suggested on a Reno television talk show last week that massive amounts of water pumped out from areas around open pit gold mines could be used to slake the thirst of Nevada's rapidly growing urban areas. The water was potable, he said, fit for human consumption.

"Water is going to be a huge issue," Fields said on "Nevada News Makers," which the mining association partially sponsors. "We do have to move a lot of water. That is in some cases an interbasin transfer. That is what Las Vegas is talking about, major interbasin transfers."

Fields was right. Las Vegas and all of Southern Nevada are running dry. Water authorities are pushing for permission to pump water from rural valleys - or basins - in the north to urban areas in the south.

Water from the state's gold mines has not been a part of those plans, but Fields suggested that the transfer of water from mining wells would be an industry priority for the next session of the Legislature, which begins in 2007.

Or maybe not. As Fields' proposal percolated through the state this week, it became clear that the idea was not popular.

The pollution problem

The mining industry is far and away the largest industrial polluter of surface water in Nevada, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Of the 107,890 pounds of toxic chemicals poured into Nevada's surface water in 2004, the latest year tracked by the federal government, 107,878 came from metal mining. Twelve pounds came from other sources, including 11 pounds from metal fabrication.

Despite that pollution, much of the water pumped out from around the mines is often clean enough for human use, said Tom Myers, a hydrologist by training who works closely with conservation groups in Nevada. The water is pumped from around mines to keep the huge open pits themselves dry.

Even when that water is loaded with minerals, it could be treated to bring it up to potable quality, Myers said.

Environmental concerns

But other aspects of the proposal present bigger problems. One is that mining wells, called dewatering wells, operate under temporary permits from the Nevada state engineer.

Cities could be in a tough spot if they depend on water from mines that will eventually shut down, Myers said. "How do they benefit unless they open new mines, or the wells keep operating even if the mines shut down? These water rights have always been sold as temporary. Once dewatering ceases, they have to shut down."

Another potential problem is for the environment. The Nevada state engineer allows mining companies to pump out water above what the environment can naturally replenish, what is called the sustainable, perennial yield, to ensure the pits stay dry.

That is very different from agencies such as the Southern Nevada Water Authority, which have to stay within the natural limits of the local environment when they use groundwater.

"The mines are not limited to the perennial yield," Myers said. "They can pump as much as they want or need to keep the pits dry. They're allowed to do that because it's temporary."

Myers said overpumping from mining wells that send water to urban users would be strongly opposed by environmentalists in the state. Many of those environmentalists are also strongly opposed to practices of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, which like the mining association, has an interest in interbasin transfers.

The Water Authority now supplies nearly all of Clark County's water needs from Lake Mead and the Colorado River, but is moving to develop groundwater sources throughout Lincoln County and in southern White Pine County in Nevada's vast rural center. Environmentalists and some ranchers, especially in White Pine County, have opposed the plans.

Residents and political leaders in Elko County, home to some of Nevada's most productive gold mines, also have expressed concerns about those plans. But Water Authority General Manager Pat Mulroy has said the agency has no plans to extend the pipelines into Elko County.

She repeated that Thursday.

'You couldn't sell those bonds'

And Mulroy said that whatever the mining association is planning has nothing to do with the Water Authority. "First I've heard of it," she said.

The showstopper for such a plan would be the temporary nature of the well permits for mining, Mulroy said.

" Why would you spend that kind of money on temporary water? You couldn't get the banks to support it. You couldn't sell those bonds."

Mulroy and others noted that there was a proposal in the mid-1990s to divert mining water to the Humboldt River for municipal use, but it went nowhere.

The only way to make such a proposal work would be to modify the state's water law to make such mining well permits permanent.

"I'm somewhat uncomfortable with the whole notion of opening up Nevada water law," she said.

Bob Fulkerson, chairman of the advocacy group Great Basin Mine Watch, said the mining industry leadership will look to sell water to Nevada's cities:

"They're probably looking at the fact that Reno is going to be out of water. We have 10 years of growth left, and then they're also of course looking at Las Vegas and the pipeline that's supposed to end in White Pine County.

"Somebody forgot to tell them it's not an infinite supply of water and building a pipeline can cost billions of dollars."

Fulkerson, also director of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, has also opposed the Water Authority ground water plans. Any pumping from the mines to urban areas adds to his fears.

"The damage to the ecosystem from the loss of those massive quantities of water is unfathomable," he said.

"It boggles the mind to consider what they're thinking of doing to the land and the resources out there. Even for the mining industry, it's reprehensible."

Controlling growth

The only long-term solution to Nevada's water issues is to control the state's explosive growth, and thus limit the need for more water, he said.

Pete Ernaut, a lobbyist for the mining industry with the firm R&R Partners, which also represents the Water Authority, said sending excess water to populated areas would be an enormous - and perhaps impossible - engineering and logistical challenge.

"Any plan to use that water for Southern Nevada would be geographically impossible," he said, noting that most of the largest mining operations are north of Interstate 80, cut off from Southern Nevada. Excess water generally flows into the Humboldt River, which flows from east to west and not toward Las Vegas.

The mining industry is committed to being a good corporate citizen, he said: "Nevada water law is pretty darn good and served us well for over 100 years. Anything done to change it ought to be done in a judicious manner."

In the end, Fields backed away from the idea. He said in a telephone interview that the mining association is fine with current law and would not drive for a change in legislation to allow moving water from mines to urban areas for human use.

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