[Water_news] 2. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: SUPPLY - 4/17/07

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment 

 

April 17, 2007

 

2. Supply

 

NEVADA WATER ISSUES:

No pipe dream - Vegas gets its water; Half-full glass means enough for 500,000 more people in the area - Las Vegas Sun

 

Vegas Water-Pumping Plan Approved - Associated Press

 

 

NEVADA WATER ISSUES:

No pipe dream - Vegas gets its water; Half-full glass means enough for 500,000 more people in the area

Las Vegas Sun – 4/17/07

By Emily Green and Mary Manning, staff writers

 

Pat Mulroy, general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, wasn't smiling Monday afternoon as she briefed a Sun reporter on the looming prospect of water shortages in Nevada and Arizona. The Colorado River, which supplies 90 percent of the water for Las Vegas, is dangerously stressed.

 

Then, with two pushes of her thumbs on a BlackBerry, the face of the toughest negotiator of Western water melted into what might have been satisfaction, or triumph, or relief, or all three. "There's your story," she murmured: The state engineer had just issued a 56-page decision that is best described as a Nevada standoff - a lose-lose story in which everyone left a winner.

 

As she relayed the text message, Las Vegas had just secured a vital green light in a much anticipated ruling from State Engineer Tracy Taylor to eventually pipe 60,000 acre-feet of water a year from Spring Valley, a lush rural basin 250 miles north in White Pine County.

 

Yet 350 miles away in Reno, as Susan Lynn, a coordinator of the Great Basin Water Network - a group founded expressly to oppose the project - got the same news, she too viewed it with relief. Southern Nevada had applied for 91,000 acre-feet from Spring Valley, but had been granted only 40,000 a year for 10 years and, only after careful study, clearance to slowly remove 20,000 more. "They have gotten more than we hoped for but less than they requested," she said. A glass less than half full in Las Vegas is a victory in White Pine County.

 

For environmentalists, the loveliest stretch of Nevada is at stake, a place with salt cedars, Shoshone ponds, Pahrump pool fish ( the last, incidentally, a unique species moved north from the Mojave Desert because of overmining of artesian springs.) A cautious ruling bought time to regroup for the good fight. "A mixed blessing," Lynn said.

 

However, at the Water Authority's Las Vegas offices, in the wake of the text messages, calculators were busy at a kind of math best understood by water managers. With the addition of some previously purchased water rights, banking on a increase in allowance for fine conservation, and yet more water captured in recycling, by the end of business Monday, the 40,000 acre-feet had been parlayed into 120,000. In a city booster's terms, that's enough for more than 500,000 new Las Vegans.

 

Before environmentalists defeat it, or Mulroy prevails, there remains the small matter of building hundreds of miles of pipeline, pumping stations and reservoirs. To the water manager, that's the easy part. It's the approval process that's the pain, and there is more pain in store: environmental impact studies under way by the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Geological Survey are yet to come.

 

But for one moment, on one good Monday, the water manager for Southern Nevada had a good moment in a long fight.

 

"I'm breathing easier now," she said, putting her BlackBerry back in its holster.

 

91,000

Acre-feet of water requested from Spring Valley by the Southern Nevada Water Authority

 

40,000

Acre-feet of water state will allow Southern Nevada to pump per year from Spring Valley for the first 10 years, rising to 60,000 per year after that. #

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/lv-other/2007/apr/17/566618381.html

 

 

Vegas Water-Pumping Plan Approved

Associated Press – 4/16/07

By Brendan Riley, staff writer

 

A request to pump billions of gallons of groundwater to booming Las Vegas from a valley near the Nevada-Utah line was cut to less than half the amount in a plan approved Monday by the state's engineer.

 

The pipes will be shut off if existing wells and other existing water rights in Spring Valley suffer during Southern Nevada Water Authority's pumping the next 10 years, state Engineer Tracy Taylor said.

 

A recent drought cycle has cut heavily into southern Nevada's share of Colorado River water, prompting the city to look elsewhere for water.

 

Utah officials, ranchers, conservationists and even the Mormon Church objected to Las Vegas' request to pump water from their areas.

 

Susan Land of the Great Basin Water Network, which had opposed the original pumping request, termed the decision "a victory of sorts" and questioned whether the massive project to pipe water more than 200 miles south to Las Vegas remained financially feasible.

 

"My sense is they are going to have to rethink this project," Land said. "This jacks the price of their pipeline way up. Right now, it doesn't seem very cost-effective."

 

A spokesman for the water authority said there would be no appeal.

 

"We find the decision is conservative but very reasonable," Scott Huntley said. "This certainly justifies moving forward."

 

Water authority attorney Paul Taggart other states have developed their own instate water sources, and Nevada must do the same. #

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/04/16/national/a202318D42.DTL&hw=water&sn=027&sc=598

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