Water rights hearing set

Southern Nevada Water Authority officials will make their case for more water to fill their pipeline across Eastern Nevada at a state hearing that convenes Monday morning in Carson City.

The authority wants state permission to pump more than 11.3 billion gallons of groundwater a year, enough to supply almost 120,000 homes, from three watersheds in central Lincoln County.

The water would be carried to Las Vegas in the same pipeline the authority plans to build to tap Spring Valley in White Pine County, some 250 miles away.

The hearing begins at 9 a.m. Monday at the Nevada Legislature building and will be broadcast live over the Internet. It is set to last two weeks and will determine how much water, if any, the authority should be allowed to pump from the three basins.

Cave Valley, Dry Lake Valley and Delamar Valley lie in a north-south line bracketed by U.S. Highway 93 and state Route 318. The northern one-third of Cave Valley is in White Pine County.

The authority will argue for the right to pump about 3.8 billion gallons annually from each valley.

Opponents of the project will try to prove that groundwater cannot be removed without damaging the environment and economic interests in the area.

The final decision will fall to State Engineer Tracy Taylor, who administers water rights statewide as head of the Nevada Division of Water Resources.

In April, Taylor granted the authority the right to pump at least 13 billion gallons of groundwater a year from Spring Valley. His decision came after a contentious, two-week hearing in 2006 that drew pipeline opponents from White Pine County, neighboring Utah and elsewhere.

Less acrimony is expected at next week's hearing.

Many of the parties that originally were expected to protest the pipeline project have reached side agreements with the authority, including Lincoln County, the U.S. Department of Interior, and most recently the Moapa Band of Paiute Indians.

Friday has been set aside for public comment. Comments will be logged in Carson City and through video link from the Sawyer Building on Washington Avenue near Las Vegas Boulevard and locations in Caliente and Ely.

Written input will be accepted through Feb. 29. Taylor's ruling will come out sometime after that.

It has taken the state engineer's office months to rule on previous groundwater applications of this kind.

Under the authority's current timeline, groundwater from Eastern Nevada should be flowing from taps in Las Vegas by 2015.

Construction of the massive pipeline network that will deliver that water could begin late next year and cost more than $2 billion.

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