Water authority seeks delay of Snake Valley groundwater hearing
The Southern Nevada Water Authority has asked for a one-year delay in a state hearing on the last and most contentious part of its multibillion-dollar plan to tap groundwater across Eastern Nevada.
Starting Sept. 28, State Engineer Tracy Taylor is scheduled to hold a four-week hearing on the authority's groundwater applications in Snake Valley, an aquifer that straddles the Nevada-Utah border in White Pine County, about 300 miles north of Las Vegas. But authority officials now say they need more time to finish a complex computer model showing the flow of groundwater in Snake Valley and other basins and predicting the impacts of large-scale pumping.
In a letter sent to the state today, authority officials asked for the hearing to be put off until September 2010. That, they said, should allow the authority to complete its model and give state officials and pipeline opponents the time they need to review it prior to the hearing.
It is unclear how — or how quickly — the state engineer might rule on the authority's request.
Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350.
