U.S. Water News Online
CARSON CITY, Nev. -- Water rights activists in Nevada and Utah have raised questions about a plan to split up water rights in Snake Valley, on the border between the two states, and in the process help get more water to booming Las Vegas.
The Great Basin Water Network sent a letter to U.S. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., urging him to seek a delay in a pending compact between the two states that would apportion the water rights in the valley, near Great Basin National Park.
Susan Lynn, executive director of the network, said more than 80 ranchers, Indians, environmentalists and others signed the letter, which calls the agreement premature. The letter adds the compact would "ease the way" for the Southern Nevada Water Authority to start drawing on eastern Nevada water via a planned $2 billion pipeline to Las Vegas.
The SNWA's current vice-chairman is Clark County Commission Chairman Rory Reid, Sen. Reid's son.
The letter also states that the public was "largely excluded" from discussions about the agreement until word of its existence was leaked inadvertently on a government Web site.
The plan, which calls for a bistate agreement by Sept. 5, fails to include comprehensive data on water availability, recharge and use, and more time is needed to assess possible threats to 120-square-mile Great Basin National Park, the letter states.
The letter also says that approving the agreement by Sept. 5 would undercut scheduled Sept. 11 state hearings on one of the water district's applications to pump more than 150,000 acre feet of water from rural Nevada. A third of that water would come from the Snake Valley.
Reid said the proposed compact had been under discussion for a long time, adding, "The sooner we do that, the better off Nevada will be."
Reid's office issued a follow-up statement that he had been given "every assurance that this process will be thoughtful and deliberative. While it is important for new water resources to be developed, it is also essential that the natural resources of both states are protected."
Reid also said he had talked to Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, about a rider Bennett inserted into Reid's 2004 Lincoln County land use bill that states Utah and Nevada must come to an agreement over shared groundwater resources in the Snake Valley before the water authority's project can start.
Pat Mulroy, the SNWA's general manager, has said the rider is tantamount to a veto and is being used by opponents of the water-pumping plan to scuttle the project.
Mike Styler, director of the Utah Department of Natural Resources, has said Utah didn't see the rider as a veto. He said it was inserted to assure Utah's interests in the Snake Valley basin were projected.
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