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StumbleState workshops will examine court’s decision on water rights
Wednesday, March 3, 2010 | 3:43 p.m.
Sun Archives
- The small oversight that threatens the valley’s big pipeline proposal (1-31-2010)
- Nevada Supreme Court tosses Las Vegas claims to rural water (1-28-2010)
- Nevada Supreme Court to expedite water rights case (1-22-2010)
- Governor delays signing Utah-Nevada water-sharing pact (1-9-2010)
- Supreme Court OKs $4 million water rights settlement (12-14-2009)
- Utah, Nevada draft water agreement (8-13-09)
CARSON CITY – Heeding the call of the Legislature, the state Division of Water Resources is holding a workshop to examine the effect of a court decision voiding efforts to pump water to Las Vegas from rural Nevada.
Gov. Jim Gibbons asked the special session of the Legislature to consider the effect of the ruling by the Nevada Supreme Court that may throw 14,500 water rights in jeopardy.
Assembly and Senate leaders both read statements into the record on the closing day of the special session urging the state engineer to hold hearings and develop recommendations to either request the governor to call a special session or get a bill ready for the 2011 Legislature.
The two houses said there was no time to consider all the interests and hear the parties during the special session that ended early Monday morning.
Acting State Engineer Jason King on Wednesday scheduled a workshop for March 16 in Carson City to be teleconferenced to Las Vegas to take testimony on such things as the protection of existing water rights, the status of pending applications, preservation of priorities and application of protest periods.
Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, said he appreciates the quickness in which King acted because this issue has “gigantic financial impacts” for Southern Nevada.
He said homebuilders, developers and new casino projects must have water rights to get financing or loans. And these water rights must extend the length of the loan or bond, Townsend said in a television interview on “Face the State.”
And those with existing water rights could face higher interest rates on existing bonds or loans if their water rights are called into question, Townsend said.
The Supreme Court on Jan. 28 ruled that the state engineer in 2007 violated the law in approving rights for the Southern Nevada Water Authority to withdraw 40,000 acre feet a year from Spring Valley in Eastern Nevada.
It overturned the ruling of District Judge Norman Robison and ordered him to decide whether the water authority must file new applications or if the state engineer must only reopen the protest period and the hearings.
The water authority has asked the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision. And it has refiled new applications for water rights in Eastern Nevada.
The court said the law was violated in this case because the state engineer did not make a decision within one year. That throws into question the approved water rights of thousands of others.
Without time to fully consider the issue, the Legislature said passing a bill in the closing hours of the special session “without sufficient deliberation will only raise more issues than it solves and will likely cause unintended and potentially harmful consequences.”
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"the state Division of Water Resources is holding a workshop" to examine... ?
"Acting State Engineer Jason King... ? He may be an acter, but he is not the official Engineer.
The story goes on to verify exactly what I've known for the last 22 years!
The State Water Engineer acter(s) are merely [rubber stamp] puppits for SNWA; CWC; or other agency scams.
Now, such actor pleas insanity to all private water right contracts and applications because SNWA/CWC cries the courts unfairly stopped their pipedream from N. NV; and, they may lose their "water credits", which they alone created!
The SNWA/CWC consultant from San Fransisco now ask the NV Legislature to make a law for them, to circumvent the courts, and omits the $3/4 BILLION that CWC already swindled from water users in Southern NV!
Is it business as usual, or should the carpet be pulled from these parasite agencies???
START REALIZING THAT NEVADA ONLY GETS
.3 MILLION (THAT'S RIGHT, *POINT THREE* MILLION) ACRE FEET OF WATER FROM EVERYTHING THAT FLOWS IN THE COLORADO RIVER.
CALIFORNIA AND ARIZONA GET THE OTHER 99.7% OR SO OF THE COLORADO RIVER WATER.
AND THESE POLITICO IDIOTS GAVE OUT WATER PERMITS LIKE CANDY TO THEIR
'CONNECTED' POLITICAL PALS.
EVEN CLARK COUNTY COMMISSIONER TOMMY 'I DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS ILLEGAL' COLLINS WAS UP IN CARSON CITY LOBBYING FOR HIS DEVELOPER PALS 'TULLY RANCH LLC' WITH AN INTEREST COYOTE SPRINGS DEVELOPMENT AS REPORTED BY THE SUN (although he claims he didn't say an illegal peep to anyone).
THIS WATER RIGHTS SCAM IS AS PHONY AS IT GETS.
NEVADA GETS *NEXT TO NO* WATER. BY LAW. AND IT'S UNTOUCHABLE AND UNBREAKABLE.
THESE LYIN' DOGS WANT YOU TO HELP THEIR REAL ESTATE, MORTGAGE LOAN, BANKING, CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPER 'PALS' MAKE BIG BUCKS AGAIN.
GET GOVERNMENT OUT OF THE REAL ESTATE, HOUSING AND DEVELOPMENT BUSINESS AND START GETTING SOME INDICTMENTS ROLLING ON THESE CHUMPS.....
wizardofOz, I agree with you.
However, there is 1 major question I presented to SNWA for 22 years, & remains un-answered:
"Under what statute restricts SNWA from pumping ALL the potable water from Lake Mead that the Vegas Valley water users need, and if such a statute does exist, WHO created it?"
I believe that this "water credit" return policy is merely a SNWA/CWC fabricated scam and excuse to squander money & resources, which the State Water Engineer actor(s) is party to.
Water rights is a NV State issue, & the Feds have no legal authority in such issue.
If SNWA done its job and pumped all the potable water that the valley needs, who has legal authority to stop that? Only NV courts.
SNWA does not have the rights to the water in Lake Mead since it is managed by federal entities. The Bureau of Reclamation is in charge of water allocation. SNWA has failed to manage the water it is allotted each year. Pat "Vegas has plenty of water" Mulroy is alwasy saying we have enough water to go around. She has not focused on water conservation measures, and mearly thinks that she can take whatever water she can get ahold of. Until there is a new manager at SNWA nothing is going to change in the valley and water is going to become a heated topic.