Las Vegas water ‘grab’ hearings wrap up

By BRENDAN RILEY, Associated Press Writer
Monday, February 18, 2008 6:59 PM CST

CARSON CITY, Nev. — State hearings into a plan to pump billions of gallons of rural Nevada water to Las Vegas ended Friday with proponents saying they’re entitled to the water and opponents warning that the pumping could have a catastrophic impact.

State Engineer Tracy Taylor will review the testimony and voluminous paperwork submitted during two weeks of hearings and issue a ruling at a later date on the Southern Nevada Water Authority pumping plan. A final decision isn’t likely for several months.

Paul Taggart, attorney for SNWA which wants to draw more than 11.3 billion gallons of groundwater a year from Delamar, Dry Lake and Cave valleys, argued that the water authority met all requirements for the pumping and critics’ disaster scenarios are unfounded.

Simeon Herskovits, attorney for the Great Basin Water Network which opposes the plan, countered that SNWA tried to hide evidence that the pumping may harm existing water users and the environment in rural Nevada because there’s not enough water in the valleys for long-term exportation.

Herskovits was backed by Greg Walch, representing Cave Valley Ranch LLC which wants to develop land in that valley. Walch said that despite its remoteness, the valley has potential — but not without water.

Taggart said the three valleys have limited growth potential. As for the development plans outlined by Walch, he said they don’t pencil out and SNWA “shouldn’t lose water because someone wants to dig a hole, throw money in it and burn it.”

“This isn’t a shell game. This isn’t some kind of legal argument. This is science,” Taggart said in challenging Herskovits’ comments about inadequate analysis by SNWA on the impact of the pumping, a key element in a multi-billion-dollar project to get more water for Las Vegas.

Claims from critics about the potential for economic and environmental disasters are like “a boy whistling in the dark,” Taggart said, adding that the state engineer should trust that “ingenuity and engineering” by SNWA can keep the valleys from drying up.

Herskovits said SNWA’s estimate of water availability in the valleys was based on “some real uncertainty, some real speculation,” adding, “What we have is a great paucity of real evidence and instead some very creative analysis.”

Herskovits also said descendants of pioneer ranchers are still in the eastern Nevada valleys and represent an important “heritage and history and culture ... that can’t be measured economically.”

“I don’t think you want to make a decision that’s ultimately going to be seen as having worked a huge catastrophe on Nevada, comparable, maybe worse than what was done in Owens Valley,” Herskovits said, referring to a Los Angeles water grab that that once-fertile eastern California valley in the early 1900s.

Walch argued that despite the SNWA assessment of limited development potential in the outlying Nevada valleys there’s room for something on a modest scale.

“Our suggestion is not to put Disneyland there,” Walch said, adding, “None of us has a crystal ball — except for knowing that Cave Valley can’t develop without water.”

The SNWA project opponents include ranchers and farmers, as well as local irrigation companies, a water board, the Sierra Club, Nevada Cattlemen’s Association and White Pine County which borders Lincoln County where the valleys are located.

The project is backed by casino executives, developers, union representatives and others who point to water conservation efforts in the Las Vegas area and who warn of an economic downturn affecting the entire state unless the city has enough water to keep growing.

The valleys are all in central Lincoln County, which initially opposed the plan but reached an agreement with the water authority on which groundwater basins can developed. The agreement also allows for use of SNWA’s pipeline, for a price, by the county.

The agency hopes to begin delivering rural groundwater to Las Vegas by 2015. Its eventual goal is to import enough water to serve more than 230,000 homes, in addition to about 400,000 households already getting its water. Cost of its 200-mile-long pipeline project has been estimated at anywhere from $2 billion to $3.5 billion.

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