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Jul. 16, 2008
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Hearing scheduled for 2009 on water

Agency seeks another 16 billion gallons

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CARSON CITY -- A hearing will be held in late 2009 on a bid by the main water supplier for Las Vegas for another 16 billion gallons from a valley on the state's border with Utah.

The Southern Nevada Water Authority, which is already allowed to pump more than 19 billion gallons of water a year from rural Nevada, wanted the hearing on the Snake Valley pumping plan to start in January. But SNWA lawyers agreed Tuesday to a delay after being required to file additional documents with state Engineer Tracy Taylor, who has final say on the application.

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    • The delay is fine with opponents of the big project, who argued that a January hearing wouldn't give them enough time to prepare. Hearing officer Susan Joseph-Taylor said an exact hearing time frame would be set at a later date.

    The agency's application for the Snake Valley water is a key element in its efforts to start delivering rural groundwater through a 200-mile-long pipeline network 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 it already serves. Cost of its pipeline project has been estimated at anywhere from $2 billion to $3.5 billion.

    Foes of the Snake Valley water pumping plan include many ranchers and farmers who fear the loss of their way of life, environmental and conservation groups, several Indian tribes and White Pine County which encompasses part of the valley.

    Other opponents include federal agencies such as the National Park Service which has a park near the pumping zone, and Millard County, Utah. Full "interested party" status wasn't granted to all the critics, which means they'll have little involvement in the late-2009 hearing.



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    Roger wrote on July 18, 2008 07:36 AM: Take your obese children somewhere else. Las Vegas has reached its growth limit. There is not enough water for your lawn and your children. Stealing it from someone else won't solve your growth problems. Vegas has reached its peak. It will never regain the growth it had before the well deserved forclosure problem. The growth was all on borrowed time. Vegas developers are greedy pigs and the demise of that idiotic town is a deserved demise.

    Screw Vegas and the selfish, fat people who live there.


    JR wrote on July 17, 2008 08:45 AM: WPC Dust - As expected the market has already put a limit on housing in southern Nevada. Current homes are being vacated and the owners are likely moving into apartments or renting condos or moving out. Builders aren't finishing projects they started years ago. We already have 2 million people here so unless you want to start kicking people out and/or not allow them to have any children that grow up and want to buy a home we will need water. And the water from the CO river / Lake Mead is not enough.


    Ray Walker wrote on July 17, 2008 04:37 AM: 16 Billion gallons is 49,000 acre feet a year.

    The SNWA has been offered a truly new fresh water Source of 1,000,000 AF/year with the added bonus that development of the Source will save the SNWA hundreds of millions of dollars AND encourage numerous entities in the region to help finance the pipeline and plans of the SNWA.

    In addition, water from the new Source can keep Lake Mead reasonably full and producing its 1800 megawatts of renewable energy.

    Ray Walker (Retired Water Rights Analyst) waterrdw@yahoo.com


    WPC Dust wrote on July 16, 2008 08:20 AM: The dust will be coming form WPC. A ban on new housing needs to be put in effect in LV. If you can't take care of what you have with what you have, why allow it to continue and promote further growth. This is crazy!


    Russ wrote on July 16, 2008 07:26 AM: Jamie, let's hear you say that in 5 years when there is dust coming out of your faucet because of all you outsiders that decided life in the desert was better than where you came from. Or......you could just move back to wherever you came from.


    Jamie wrote on July 16, 2008 04:02 AM: If you care about Nevada as a state, then please oppose this lunacy. It is designed to nothing more than cheat mother nature and make the rich richer.