Officials work to fix pipeline project

If lawmakers agree to a quick change in Nevada water law, Las Vegas water officials will be forced to repeat the state hearing process for a key part of its pipeline project. But they won't have to start over completely.

Allen Biaggi, director of the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, on Wednesday said Gov. Jim Gibbons has signed off on the proposed language for the water measure. It is now up to the Legislative Counsel Bureau to write the actual bill.

The proposal is meant to address a Jan. 28 Nevada Supreme Court ruling that could cloud thousands of pumping rights issued over a 55-year period and jeopardize plans to supply Las Vegas with water siphoned from across eastern Nevada.

Biaggi said the new language is intended to shore up the validity of the water filings called into question by the Supreme Court by narrowing the impact of the ruling to only the water authority's applications for pumping rights in Spring Valley.

For those select filings, Biaggi said, the state would reopen a protest period that closed more than 20 years ago, back when Las Vegas officials first applied for the water.

State regulators would then hold a new hearing on the authority's plans to pump billions of gallons of groundwater a year from the vast watershed in White Pine County, 250 miles north of Las Vegas.

Biaggi said he consulted with water authority officials while crafting the proposed language, but he insists it was not written for the authority's benefit.

"This cuts no slack to them," he said. "I don't know if they were particularly thrilled or happy about it."

For one thing, Spring Valley is the crucial piece of the authority's pipeline puzzle.

Authority officials have described the valley as the "anchor basin" for the entire project. More than half of the groundwater destined to one day fill the pipeline is expected to come from there.

In a written statement, spokesman J.C. Davis said the authority supports Biaggi's proposed fix "to the extent that this amendment provides increased certainty as it relates to Nevada water law."

But Davis said it would be inappropriate to speculate on "the implications for our applications and permits" in Spring Valley or elsewhere.

It's unclear whether lawmakers will even find time to discuss the measure during the special session, let alone pass it.

When asked about the odds of the Legislature tackling water rights in the coming days, Assembly Majority Leader John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas, said there was "not a lot of support, but this is a sausage factory so you never know."

Regardless of what lawmakers end up doing, Biaggi said he plans to push for a complete review of Nevada water law during the next full session of the Legislature in 2011.

He said the recent Supreme Court ruling highlights the need for some clarification after "97 years of piecemeal addition and subtraction" to the statute.

"We feel strongly it needs a rewrite," he said.

Las Vegas Review-Journal writers Benjamin Spillman and Ed Vogel contributed to this report.