‘Water for roads’ idea is on the table

Monday, Jan. 15, 2007 | 7:15 a.m.

You are the new governor of Nevada and on your desk is a stack of proposed road projects higher than an overpass and more expensive than the costliest hotel on the Strip.

Problem is, you don't want to raise taxes or fees such as those on gasoline and motor vehicle registration, the usual sources of Nevada highway funding for many years.

And yet a task force of business leaders and politicians estimated last year that you will have to come up with an additional $3.8 billion between 2008 and 2015 for roadway construction.

Members of Gov. Jim Gibbons' transportation transition team have come up with at least one novel idea aimed at avoiding both political and roadway gridlock: Have the Nevada Department of Transportation sell any excess water rights to raise money for road projects.

Patty Wade, co-director of Gibbons' transition teams, said that the water rights idea was only one of "many possible solutions that need to be studied.''

"They identified many ways to make up that budget deficit over time," Wade said of the transportation team. "Water rights is one of many potential solutions, not the silver bullet."

Still, the idea of selling water rights has appeal because, as Wade noted, the value of water "has gone up tremendously" in recent years.

A co-chairman of Gibbons' transportation team, Reno businessman Tyrus Cobb said team members do not know whether NDOT has any excess water to sell, but thought the idea was worth exploring.

"It was just a general discussion," Cobb said.

As it turns out, NDOT actually beat the transition team to the punch.

In November the department approved a $500,000 contract for a team of consultants to study NDOT's water holdings in Northern Nevada's Truckee Meadows region, which includes the Truckee River and its tributaries.

The panel's preliminary report, due next month, is expected to determine not only the amount and value of the department's water rights in that area but whether it has any spare water and whether any other state agencies could use it.

"We just want to know about our inventory," NDOT spokesman Scott Magruder said. "We're in the process of identifying NDOT's water rights and other state agency needs."

Former state engineer Michael Turnipseed, a member of the consulting team, said the preliminary indication is that NDOT has "tens of millions of dollars" worth of surplus water in the Truckee Meadows area. But Turnipseed also said he is recommending that the department hold on to at least some of its surplus water to help irrigate rights-of-way and plan for future expansion, such as additional road maintenance shops.

Whether Gibbons formally proposes the water rights option will not be known until he delivers his State of the State address on Jan. 22 before the beginning of the upcoming legislative session.

Under Nevada law, surface and underground water are public property, not the property of the landowner. But individuals, companies and government agencies can apply to the state for the right to use the water. Those rights can be sold or transferred, but if the water is not used for five years, it reverts to the public.

With only a few exceptions, such as surface water rights from before 1905, all applications for new water rights fall under the jurisdiction of the state engineer in the Division of Water Resources.

To approve new water rights, the state engineer must determine that there is unappropriated water from the source the applicant wishes to draw from, that the application does not impair existing rights and that the proposal does not harm the public interest. Road construction and maintenance have long been considered beneficial water uses.

The water resources division's Web site lists at least 55 certificates or permits for water rights held throughout the state by NDOT or its pre-1979 predecessor, the Nevada Department of Highways. Of those, only five are in Clark County.

NDOT has received water rights mostly near highways for facilities such as rest stops and road maintenance shops and for tasks such as washing its maintenance vehicles.

Deputy state engineer Kelvin Hickenbottom said his office would have to do considerable research to determine all of NDOT's water rights.

He said it is possible that the department's water rights exceed those reflected on the state Web site. The Web site does not include draws from the Truckee River, the source of water for property along Interstate 80 and U.S. 395, because of the complex nature of those water rights and the fact that the river crosses the state line from California.

Water rights also may be transferred from one party to another without the state engineer's approval. That means that a private owner could have transferred water rights to NDOT without that information being recorded with the state engineer.

"It is up to the water right holder to bring the title up to date," Hickenbottom said.

Conversely, it also is possible that NDOT holds only a small portion of the rights to water that lies beneath its highways. And unless NDOT holds vested water rights, the department would have to apply to the state engineer for new rights.

"It's not as though you can say, 'There's water under my property; so I'm going to take it,' " said Reno attorney Scott Shapiro, a Nevada water law expert.