State delays hearing on Southern Nevada’s groundwater pipeline

By Mary Manning

Friday, April 24, 2009 | 11:30 a.m.

In an eight-page interim order issued today, a state hearing on the final and most controversial part of the Southern Nevada Water Authority's groundwater pipeline has been delayed two years.

The state had scheduled a four-week hearing on the authority's groundwater applications in Snake Valley starting Sept. 28 in Carson City.

In late March the authority asked for a delay until September 2010 so their experts can complete a complex computer model exhibiting the flow of groundwater in Snake Valley and surrounding basins.

In the interim order, acting State Engineer Jason King, Nevada's water czar, granted a two-year delay. Authority officials have been asked to submit details explaining why they need more time by June 19, according to the order.

"The federal agencies requested that the earliest the hearing be held was January 2010 on the basis that there was not much information available with reference to Snake Valley indicating there are many more water rights in this hydrographic basin and the issues are different than have been addressed in previous hearings," King wrote.

There are ongoing studies and ongoing data collection, King said in a telephone interview.

A specific date has not been scheduled, other than in the fall of 2011, King said. The state needs to find space and make sure the hearing dates will work for all parties, he said.

The Southern Nevada Water Authority considers the order "fair," said spokesman J.C. Davis. "It won't delay our construction plans," he said. The water authority recognizes this is the first time the state engineer has required a groundwater model and needs a consistent model to meet requirements of an environmental impact statement, Davis said.

The authority had planned to start delivering rural groundwater to Las Vegas through a 300-mile pipeline that cloud eventually cost $3.5 billion or more by 2013.

Snake Valley is in the White Pine County watershed, which straddles the Nevada-Utah line and lies under parts of the Great Basin National Park, the only national park in Nevada.