Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Elko County residents told their water is safe from Las Vegas’ thirst

Elko County residents have long suspected that Las Vegas has designs on their water.

Today, those residents can rest at least a bit easier after the Southern Nevada Water Authority board adopted a resolution promising to leave Elko County alone.

The resolution, passed unanimously Thursday, promises that the Water Authority will not apply for ground water in Elko County, buy ranches to acquire existing water rights or obtain land and water through eminent domain or gifts.

The Water Authority has asked the state for the right to take more than 115,000 acre-feet - more than 32 billion gallons, or about a third of what it now takes from Lake Mead for nearly all needs in and around Las Vegas - annually from White Pine County, Elko County's neighbor.

The agency also has purchased three ranches in White Pine County with thousands of acre-feet of surface and ground water rights.

The Water Authority also is working to develop rural ground water sources in Lincoln and northern Clark counties and deliver the water to metropolitan Las Vegas through a 250-mile network of pipelines. The agency has argued that it needs the water to diversify the community's near-total reliance on the Colorado River and to keep pace with ongoing urban growth.

Residents of Elko County and its communities of Elko, Carlin and Spring Creek have been concerned that the Water Authority would seek water there, too, despite agency officials' repeated denials of any such plans.

The resolution passed Thursday will not completely erase those fears. Under state law, the Water Authority board cannot "bind" or restrict a future board from overturning the resolution. Still, the vote was welcomed in Elko County, which already has considered and supported the resolution.

"It will help alleviate some of the fears that we have here," said Sheri Eklund-Brown, an Elko County commissioner. "It is only as good as the board's word and our word ... I'm very happy to hear they did approve it unanimously."

Eklund-Brown said Elko County residents would fight any effort to appropriate water for Las Vegas. Her county's water is needed up north, she added.

"We have a much more populated county, more opportunities for growth and future needs than maybe some of the rural counties do," she said. "We are very strong politically. And we have a very outspoken citizenry that is not afraid to stand up for (its) rights."

Elko County District Attorney Gary Woodbury said he believed the intent of the resolution was to limit the county government's protests against the Water Authority's ground water development plans. He also noted that the resolution was a promise that could be retracted by the authority's board in the future. Water Authority attorney Chuck Hauser agreed that is possible, but said that the resolution nonetheless provides some comfort to Elko County.

The resolution calls for the authority to spend $300,000 to $500,000 to build two monitoring wells in White Pine County to ensure that the ground water development program does not affect Elko County's water supplies, Hauser said.

The reason the resolution is important, he added, is that the entire state needs to cooperate on water issues.

"We are trying to develop this as a statewide resource project," Hauser said. "You take the wishes and concerns of the outlying counties into account."

The authority has tried, largely unsuccessfully, to win support for its White Pine County plans from White Pine residents. Hauser said those efforts are in hiatus as State Engineer Tracy Taylor considers the Water Authority's applications to take 91,000 acre-feet annually from White Pine's Spring Valley.

The state engineer held contentious hearings on the applications in September. Protesters argue that the Water Authority should seek to conserve more water in Las Vegas or curb growth before looking to rural Nevada for more water.

Despite Thursday's action, Susan Lynn, coordinator of the statewide nonprofit group Great Basin Water Network, is dubious about the authority's long-term commitment to Elko County.

"It's probably very short term since they can't constrain future decision makers as a group," Lynn said. "It's a nice promise.

"My sense is that the appetite for water is insatiable; they're always going to need more unless you fundamentally change the paradigm."

archive