Battle with Utah brewing

In what could be the first salvo in an all-out water war, Southern Nevada Water Authority chief Pat Mulroy is blasting a push by Utah lawmakers who want a federal study of her agency's plans to tap groundwater across eastern Nevada.

Mulroy on Wednesday called the move "an absolute, deliberate stall tactic" by Utah officials who want water from the same area to fuel development in Cedar City, St. George and elsewhere along Interstate 15.

She went on to accuse Utah of tampering with Nevada's "sovereign right" to develop groundwater resources within its boundaries.

The heightened rhetoric came after Utah's Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Committee sent a letter to the state's congressional delegation seeking support for a new $6 million study of an aquifer that lies under Snake Valley in eastern Nevada and western Utah.

The fear expressed by some Utah lawmakers is that large-scale groundwater pumping in Snake Valley could lead to dust storms in the highly populated Salt Lake valley.

"The impact of a decision out there is going to affect far more than people on the border. It's going to affect the Wasatch Front," said state Sen. Margaret Dayton, R-Orem. "If that area dries up into a big dust bowl ... there's going to be a lot of dust blowing into the state over the highly populated areas."

Mulroy dismissed such concerns as hyperbole and said her agency would press on with its pipeline plan.

"The amount of water we're talking about taking out of Snake Valley ... would never have that effect," she said. "It's so easy to create fear and confusion because people don't understand the issue."

In April, Nevada State Engineer Tracy Taylor authorized the water authority to take up to 40,000 acre-feet of water annually from Spring Valley, the White Pine County aquifer west of Great Basin National Park.

The authority is seeking another 25,000 acre-feet of groundwater in Snake Valley, east of the national park.

An acre-foot of water is enough to supply two Las Vegas homes for a year.

The water from both valleys would run through 285 miles of pipeline to feed population growth in Southern Nevada.

Mulroy said Utah's move could delay the more than $2 billion project if federal officials don't grant rights of way for the pipeline network until additional study is done.

Utah and Nevada are negotiating a water-sharing agreement that must be completed before the authority can tap any groundwater it might be granted in Snake Valley.

Mulroy, who is not directly involved in the talks, said she questions whether that agreement will get done: "It looks like the state of Utah has no intention of ever signing an agreement with Nevada. None."

Mulroy predicted the dispute over Snake Valley could wind up in court.

A water fight could have far-reaching effects for both states and the region. More than a dozen separate groundwater basins cross the Nevada-Utah line, and both states claim the right to water from the Virgin River.

Mulroy said a dust-up between Nevada and Utah has the potential to spill over into broader issues concerning the Colorado River.

The seven states that share the river are divided into two groups, with Nevada, Arizona and California in the lower basin and Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming in the upper basin. In recent years, water managers from the two basins have set aside long-simmering disputes and hammered out new rules for the management of the Colorado.

A key step was Nevada's willingness to develop "in-state resources" such as rural groundwater, Mulroy said.

Ranchers in Snake Valley and several environmental groups oppose the water authority's pipeline plan.

They contend that if pumping is allowed, the groundwater recharge would be inadequate to fill the Snake Valley aquifer and could tip a delicate balance, even causing the migration of briny water from the Great Salt Lake into the freshwater aquifer.

Estimates that the aquifer under Nevada's Spring Valley and Snake Valley could drop up to 200 feet are reasonable, said Boyd Clayton of the Utah state engineer's office.

A 50-foot drop in the water table would kill the vegetation that holds the desert soil in place, said Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada spokesman Launce Rake. If that happens, he said, dust storms could result. He points to California's Owens Valley, which was pumped dry to give Los Angeles water. Owens Valley winter dust storms cause the nation's worst particulate air pollution.

Mulroy said present-day environmental laws would not allow a repeat of Owens Valley, but drawing that comparison with Snake Valley helps Utah officials perpetrate their ruse.

"This isn't about protecting farmers or the environment. The truth is they (Utah officials) need water to develop the I-15 corridor."

The Associated Press contributed to this report using information from The Salt Lake Tribune.