U.S. Water News Online
LAS VEGAS -- Residents in the northwest corner of Arizona are gearing up to fight an unprecedented plan to pump groundwater across the Nevada border to Mesquite.
"The general consensus is, nobody wants this," said Nikki Stoddard, a Beaver Dam, Ariz., resident.
Almost 400 people filled a room at an elementary school in Beaver Dam, Ariz., to hear about the proposal by Wind River Resources. Dozens of people lined up to sign petitions against the water deal, and many wore stickers advertising a Web site called NoNevadaWaterGrab.com.
A banner along Interstate 15, which slices through the area, also directs attention to the Internet site, which Stoddard helped establish.
She called the Wind River application to the Arizona Department of Water Resources a "test case" for others who would buy land in the so-called Arizona Strip and sell groundwater to Nevada.
The fight dates to March 2005, when Wind River Resources filed an application to export groundwater from Arizona for use in another state. Arizona never has granted such an application.
Wind River wants to sell the water to the Virgin Valley Water District, which serves the Mesquite area. The water would be pumped from wells on property northwest of Beaver Dam and piped about 10 miles to Mesquite.
The company also wants to use the district's water system to deliver water back across the border to supply development on another part of the Arizona Strip.
Some residents in Beaver Dam and neighboring Littlefield, Ariz., worry that the project could leave their wells dry.
"They can't take this water into Nevada without having a negative impact on Arizona," said Bob Frisby, whose Beaver Dam Water Company serves about 1,000 customers on the Arizona Strip. "It will dry us up."
Wind River Resources spokesman John Michael said the water would come from a different aquifer than the one supplying Beaver Dam and Littlefield. He said the groundwater Wind River is after flows west into Nevada.
Michael accused Frisby and Jack Riley, who owns several thousand acres along I-15 in Arizona, of whipping up opposition to the Wind River project to protect their own interests.
He said Frisby wants a water monopoly on the Arizona Strip and Riley wants to increase the value of his land along I-15 by scuttling growth elsewhere in the area.
The water fight belies close ties between Beaver Dam residents and neighbors in Nevada and Utah, where Beaver Dam residents go for groceries, libraries and hospitals.
Mike Winters, general manager of the Virgin Valley Water District, said a deal with Wind River could provide for growth in and around Mesquite. Some predict the town population could top 40,000 within four years.
Under the proposal, the amount of water piped annually from Arizona to Mesquite would increase over the next 40 years from about 1,000 acre feet to as much as 14,000 acre feet.
Winters said the price of the water would start at about $200 per acre foot and increase to about $400.
The district delivers about 5,500 acre feet of water a year to 18,000 customers in an area covering more than 310 square miles in Nevada and Arizona.
Winters said the district owns the rights to some 12,000 acre feet of water, enough to supply about 40,000 people.
For now, he said, his agency assumes it won't get any Wind River water.
The Arizona Strip also is growing, particularly Beaver Dam, Littlefield and nearby Scenic. Some estimates put the area population at more than 4,000.
Michael said Wind River Resources was developing its pipeline in cooperation with a property owner in Scenic, where some 5,000 acres were available for development.
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