Pipeline hearing postponed
A state hearing on the last and most contentious part of the Southern Nevada Water Authority's groundwater pipeline plan has been delayed until fall 2011.
Acting State Engineer Jason King, Nevada's chief water regulator, announced the delay in an order issued on Friday.
A four-week hearing on the authority's groundwater applications in Snake Valley was set to convene Sept. 28 in Carson City.
Late last month, authority officials requested a delay until September 2010 in order to finish a complex computer model showing the flow of groundwater in Snake Valley and neighboring basins about 300 miles north of Las Vegas.
Instead, King issued a two-year delay, in part to make sure the authority's groundwater model matches one being developed as part of an ongoing federal environmental review of the pipeline project.
Postponing the hearing until 2011 also will allow more work to be done on water and environmental studies in the area, King states in the order.
Some of the parties set to take part in the Snake Valley hearing did not object to the authority's request for a delay. Others gave their grudging approval but called on the authority to disclose more information about the modeling work and the project as a whole.
New Mexico-based law firm Advocates for Community and Environment, which represents many of those who oppose the authority's plans, called on the state engineer to reject the groundwater applications outright.
"SNWA has had two decades to prepare for the hearing on those applications. During these 20 years, an entire generation of Nevadans has been born, educated and has begun to have children of their own," wrote attorney Simeon Herskovits of Advocates for Community and Environment. "Meanwhile, the SNWA's applications have effectively locked up all potentially available groundwater in Snake Valley."
The delay in the hearing probably will put off a state ruling on the authority's Snake Valley applications until 2012, but that should not affect the overall timeline for the pipeline project, authority spokesman J.C. Davis said.
"Snake Valley was the last leg in the pipeline anyway, so we'd be starting in the south and working our way north," Davis said.
By as early as 2013, the authority hopes to start delivering rural groundwater to the valley through a pipeline that eventually could cost between $2 billion and $3.5 billion.
Davis said it is difficult to predict when construction could begin. First, the project must pass the environmental review to secure right-of-way permits from the federal government. Then authority officials expect to have to defend their pipeline plans in court.
"Once you get through the permitting, you have to get through the lawsuits," Davis said.
He added that conditions on the Colorado River, which supplies 90 percent of the Las Vegas Valley's water, will ultimately dictate how quickly the pipeline is developed. If the drought-stricken river recovers sufficiently, there might be no need to start construction right away, Davis said.
Some of the loudest opposition to the project has come from Snake Valley, which straddles the Nevada-Utah border and underlies portions of Great Basin National Park.
The authority has applied for permits in Snake Valley that would allow it to pump more than 16 billion gallons of groundwater a year, enough to serve about 100,000 average Las Vegas homes.
King is serving as acting head of the Nevada Division of Water Resources while State Engineer Tracy Taylor recovers after brain surgery.
As part of his six-page order, King directed authority officials to submit a detailed report by June 19 further explaining the reasons why they requested more time.
He also made it clear that his decision to postpone the hearing should "not be taken as a sign that repeated requests for delay will be readily considered."
Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350.
