Good news still flowing for valley’s water agency

A big water week for Las Vegas just got a whole lot bigger, thanks to a new deal with the federal government that will almost double how much water the community could get from a proposed pipeline to Eastern Nevada.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has agreed to let the Southern Nevada Water Authority collect return-flow credits on any groundwater it imports from rural Clark, Lincoln and White Pine counties.

The arrangement will effectively allow much of that water to be used twice.

Southern Nevada Water Authority General Manager Pat Mulroy called it "a huge deal for us," though it amounted to little more than a minor administrative move for the bureau.

There was no news conference or elaborate signing ceremony. A bureau administrator simply gave the OK in a letter sent to the authority last week.

"It's on my desk right now," Mulroy said on Thursday.

The Southern Nevada Water Authority hopes to begin piping rural groundwater to Las Vegas by 2012. The entire pipeline network, stretching some 300 miles to as far north as Great Basin National Park, could go online by 2019.

The price tag for the project is expected to easily top $2 billion and could go as high as $3.5 billion, according to the water authority's latest projections.

The water authority's plans have drawn staunch opposition, especially in the rural areas where groundwater would be tapped. Environmentalists believe the project could dry up springs and kill sensitive plants. Ranchers see it as a threat to their water holdings and their livelihoods.

Federal officials are expected to wrap up an environmental review of the project by 2009.

The authority also will need approval from the state's chief water regulator before pumping begins.

If the pipeline yields 100,000 acre-feet of water a year, return-flow credits could expand that amount by another 70,000 acre-feet, which is enough water to supply 140,000 homes.

The authority already earns return-flow credits for the Colorado River water it withdraws from Lake Mead and returns to the reservoir in the form of treated effluent.

Without such credits, the Las Vegas Valley would have outgrown its 300,000 acre-foot annual share of the Colorado River in 1993.

One acre-foot of water is enough to supply two Las Vegas homes for one year. About 90 percent of the valley's water comes from the Colorado.

Mulroy said the community can squeeze even more out of the return-flow credit system by reducing landscape watering and other outdoor uses that don't result in water being sent back to Lake Mead.

"It's like a reward for outdoor conservation," she said.

News of the return-flow credit deal comes on the heels of a landmark agreement signed in Las Vegas on Thursday that spells out how Colorado River water will be distributed during extended drought.

Southern Nevada gains access to about 40,000 acre-feet a year and a one-time reserve of at least 400,000 acre-feet under the sweeping interstate pact.

But Mulroy said winning permission to collect return-flow credits for imported groundwater rivals all that.

"I think it's equally big. Now you have a 40 (to) 50-year water supply, if you stay on your conservation path," she said.

Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0350.