Southern Nevada Water Authority General Manager Pat Mulroy addresses the White Pine County Commission in Ely on Wednesday regarding the plan to import water to the Las Vegas Valley from White Pine County. The meeting was moved to the White Pine County Courthouse because of the large number of people attending. Photo by K.M. Cannon. Southern Nevada Water Authority General Manager Pat Mulroy tries to allay the concerns of rancher Cecil Garland of Callao, Utah, on Wednesday after addressing the White Pine County Commission in Ely regarding the plans to use White Pine groundwater. Photo by K.M. Cannon.

ELY -- Some people predicted a cold reception for Southern Nevada Water Authority chief Pat Mulroy at Wednesday's White Pine County Commission meeting.

They must have been talking about the weather.

Mulroy met with no open hostility and little opposition as she unveiled a proposal she hopes will lead to a water agreement with the county.

Instead, a majority of commissioners said they thought the time had come for White Pine County officials to sit down with the authority.

"I'm agreeable to exploring this," said Commissioner Brent Eldridge. "In my view, this (proposal) tends to target what the concerns have been."

Newly appointed Commissioner Ken Heinbaugh then added a sentiment that as little as two years ago might have triggered a recall effort against him. "I think there is no harm in discussing these issues," he said. "I think we should be talking."

Mulroy proposed a combination of environmental protections and financial compensation for the rural county, which lies at the northern end of a massive water-development project the authority hopes to build over the next 15 years to carry groundwater to Las Vegas from across eastern Nevada.

At a cost of about $2 billion, the project involves the construction of dozens of wells and several hundred miles of pipeline stretching to Snake and Spring valleys in White Pine County.

"It is my sincere hope to have a process through which we can come to some accord that affords White Pine County the protection I fully understand you want and need," Mulroy said.

Her proposal includes setting aside some portion of the water the authority might be granted in Spring Valley to guard against environmental damage and provide for the county's future needs there.

It also lays out several ways the county might be paid for the groundwater piped to Las Vegas.

If the water authority is granted permits to pump from Snake and Spring valleys, for example, state law allows White Pine County to charge a basin export fee for every acre-foot taken. Based on the amount of groundwater the authority hopes to take, such fee payments to the county could top $1.1 million a year.

Mulroy said the water authority might be willing to pay a portion of that export fee money in advance.

She also offered to discuss a separate payment plan under which the county would collect annual fees for any existing water rights the authority acquires there.

No action was taken on the proposal, but several commissioners said they support the idea of convening a committee of county officials, attorneys and water users to enter into formal talks with the water authority.

However, Commissioner Gary Perea, who lives in Snake Valley, said the water authority needs to be more forthcoming before any kind of deal can be struck.

"You keep saying you can take the water without hurting our way of life or our water supply, but I haven't seen the information to back that up," Perea said. "It just seems like the Southern Nevada Water Authority is withholding some information that we need."

Several audience members also weighed in against the proposal and the pipeline project.

Terry Marasco, who owns a hotel in the Snake Valley town of Baker, said the commissioners "couldn't possibly" enter into negotiations without the technical data Perea was talking about. The risk of the unknown is just too great, Marasco said. "We have to say to ourselves, 'What's left when the water is gone and who's to benefit from what's left?' "

More than 50 people turned out to hear what Mulroy had to say. To accommodate the crowd, the meeting was moved across the street to the county courthouse, but after every seat in the courtroom was filled, including the jury box, the audience still spilled out into the hallway.

Mulroy's pitch began with a history lesson.

She reminded the commissioners that talks between the county and Las Vegas water officials actually began 16 years ago, after the Las Vegas Valley Water District filed more than 100 applications for groundwater rights in four counties.

Back then, Mulroy said, that groundwater was deemed to be "absolutely the resource of last resort."

That all changed during five years of record drought on the Colorado River, which supplies the Las Vegas Valley with 90 percent of its drinking water.

"Had I been standing here in 2000, I'd have been telling you that Southern Nevada's water future was looking healthy for the next 40 to 50 years," Mulroy said. "I unfortunately have to stand here today and say there is no alternative for Southern Nevada but to develop some of those (groundwater) filings.

"Southern Nevada has nowhere to go without an alternate plumbing system."

Utah rancher Cecil Garland said there's just one problem with that: Snake Valley is already running out of water.

There used to be a meadow in the valley that was muddy enough to bog down a rider and a horse, he said. "Now I can drive a truck across it and never wet a wheel.

"If the Southern Nevada Water Authority only has one option and that's to take water out of the Great Basin, then they don't have an option at all. It's just that simple," Garland said.

Water authority officials say they are certain the water supply exists, however.

Commission Chairman John Chachas also opposes the pipeline, but he said the county has reached a crossroads in its ability to both protect its water and keep itself financially solvent.

As Perea explained it after Mulroy's presentation, "We're negotiating from a position of weakness."

Last year, White Pine became the first Nevada county to declare a severe financial emergency and turn control of its finances over to the Nevada Department of Taxation.

"I look at this as essentially the same situation as the State of Nevada and Yucca Mountain," Commissioner Eldridge said. "We can say no forever and ultimately we will get walked on."

While Mulroy was meeting with the commissioners just ahead of a snowstorm in Ely, a group of water authority biologists were spread out across the county to conduct a study on birds of prey.

The work is part of a larger environmental assessment, which researchers from the Las Vegas Valley's wholesale water provider launched in White Pine County in 2004.

Several months ago, authority staff members quietly opened an office in Ely to support that work. The rented office now has one full-time employee and some interpretive displays on the walls. It is expected to open to the public for the first time later this week, though the hours of operation are still being decided.

A similar office is planned later this year in the Lincoln County seat of Pioche, where the authority bought three old buildings on Main Street.

Authority officials already have a water-development agreement in place with Lincoln County.