Hearing scheduled for 2009 on water
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.
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.
