Thursday, June 17, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Bill speeds up plan to bring LV rural water

WASHINGTON -- Nevada lawmakers on Wednesday introduced legislation to speed development of a rural water pipeline to Las Vegas while expanding private land ownership in Lincoln County.

The bill designates a 256-mile network of utility and pipeline corridors through Lincoln County, providing Southern Nevada with critical access to water supplies.

Routes that run from the border of Lincoln and White Pine counties were specified in a comprehensive lands bill that identifies up to 87,005 acres of Bureau of Land Management property in Lincoln County for auction.

"It's going to really help the poorest county in Nevada," Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said.

The bill was patterned after a Clark County bill that has raised more than $700 million as of April for local uses through federal land sales.

"We're giving them a chance to have private enterprise and develop increased tourism," Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said of Lincoln County, which borders Clark County to the north.

Southern Nevada Water Authority general manager Pat Mulroy, who worked with lawmakers to determine the pipeline routes, said the bill could speed water delivery to Las Vegas by five years.

A pipeline could come to reality by 2011 following state approval of applications to tap Lincoln County groundwater and compliance with federal environmental mandates, Mulroy said.

"The drought keeps deepening and the need for us to develop these water resources quickly couldn't be more urgent," Mulroy said.

About 90 percent of Southern Nevada water comes from the Colorado River, which is facing its fifth year of drought. Local water planners have been eyeing an estimated 150,000 acre feet of water reserves in Lincoln and White Pine counties which they project would lower the Las Vegas Valley's dependence on Lake Mead by 40 percent.

There are 325,829 gallons in an acre-foot. The average Las Vegas Valley household consumes about 230,000 gallons of water per year.

The bill introduced Wednesday also calls for a study by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Desert Research Institute to quantify available water supplies in White Pine County, in eastern Nevada.

Several environmental groups complained the bill exempts the government from certain environmental laws, setting a bad precedent.

Also, it is expected to draw opposition from Lincoln County residents who have blasted county leaders for striking a deal with the Southern Nevada Water Authority that resolved long-standing conflicts over water rights in the region.

Ellen Pillard, president of the Toiyabe chapter of the Sierra Club, said pipeline corridors should be selected through a public environmental process.

"We have procedures in place," Pillard said, "That's the way Las Vegas ought to go about that."

Nevada lawmakers defended their approach, which still would require a public environmental review by the BLM before the water authority could build the pipeline on the designated route.

"This bill does not change the water rights laws of the state at all," said Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev. "It identifies an area where we believe corridors and easements should go instead of looking at every corridor in the world."

The bill also designates 192 miles for pipelines for Lincoln County use. None of the pipelines would cross wilderness areas, a Reid aide said.

Lincoln County commission chairman Spencer Hafen said the bill preserves an 2003 agreement that allows Southern Nevada Water Authority and Lincoln County water officials to tap groundwater supplies.

"Nobody wants to see a resource go out of the county," Hafen said. "But we got water rights applications we didn't have otherwise."

Reid said Nevada lawmakers sought to appease Lincoln County residents while accommodating Las Vegas water needs.

"We recognize there's 1.7 million people in Clark County. There's 3,700 in Lincoln County. Frankly, had we been very brutal we didn't have to think about Lincoln County," Reid said. "But we want to make sure Lincoln County is rewarded for what they've done."

The bill also reverses a March federal court ruling that delayed the sale of BLM land north of Mesquite for up to two years. By amending a 2000 law governing Lincoln County land sales, the bill relieves the agency of complying with a court order to complete a more detailed environmental study and sell two parcels of BLM land within 75 days.

The 41-page measure designates 769,611 acres of wilderness, expands three state parks and establishes a 260-mile off-highway vehicle road trail. It would grow private ownership from 2 percent to 4 percent in Lincoln County, which is predominantly owned by the Bureau of Land Management.

"One of the things that we have fought for years and years is to free up some of the 98 percent of the land in the county that is controlled by the government," Hafen said.

Environmentalists also complained the bill does too little for wilderness protection, pointing to 87,977 acres of pristine land about 90 miles north of Las Vegas known as the Pahranagat Range, which they said should have been included as wilderness.

During negotiations on the bill, Reno-based Nevada Wilderness Project proposed 2.5 million acres be designated wilderness in Lincoln County. Although the bill falls well short of that goal, the legislation sets aside about 200,000 more wilderness acres than suggested by the BLM, Senate aides said.

"Everybody didn't get everything," Gibbons said. "Recreation and environmental groups each had to take their lumps with this bill but in the end I think we really have a great piece of work."

Similar to legislation that set parameters for land sales in Southern Nevada, the Lincoln County bill directs the BLM to auction public land adjacent to towns aching to expand their tax base.

But unlike the Clark County sales, 50 percent of receipts from auctions in Lincoln County would be retained by the Interior Department.

"It's a rural county. You need some of the money to take care of some of the other public lands around," said Ensign, who also co-authored the 1998 law governing Clark County land sales.

Lincoln County would collect 45 percent of the revenues for economic development projects, parks, trails and natural areas. The remaining 5 percent would be deposited into the state education fund, according to a summary of the bill.

The bill's introduction comes late in an election-year session, but Reid and Gibbons expressed confidence Congress would approve the Lincoln County bill by the end of the year.

Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman Jo Simpson said the agency has not taken a position on the bill.