[Water_news] 3. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: WATERSHEDS - 4/10/07

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

April 10, 2007

 

3. Watersheds

 

Northern water authority debated

Reno Gazette Journal – 4/10/07

By Jeff DeLong, staff writer

 

Legislation that would establish a new regional water authority for the Truckee Meadows was described Monday as necessary to fix a dysfunctional system.

 

Opponents said the proposal would create an unnecessary addition to government that could come with major costs to Washoe County residents.

 

The Senate Natural Resources Committee took no action on Senate Bill 487, which would create the Northern Nevada Water Authority to manage and conserve existing water supplies and search for new ones for the rapidly growing region.

 

The new authority, largely based on Las Vegas' Southern Nevada Water Authority, would oversee the four major water purveyors serving the greater Reno-Sparks area: the Truckee Meadows Water Authority, the Washoe County Department of Water Resources, and the Sun Valley and South Truckee Meadows general improvement districts.

 

The bill was written after lengthy hearings last year by an interim subcommittee formed after the cost of water skyrocketed in 2005.

 

Reno developer Perry DiLoreto, a supporter of the legislation, told lawmakers changes are needed to an existing system that was "spinning out of control" due to turf wars among public water providers and an approach to managing water supplies that did not look to the region as a whole.

 

"The ultimate respect for the resource is ignored," DiLoreto said. "We need to do a better job. We are a region."

 

Michael Pennington, policy director for the Reno-Sparks Chamber of Commerce, supported creation of the new authority as "imperative" for the region's future.

 

Critics, however, roundly attacked the proposal as being developer-driven and unnecessary. Several said the ultimate cost of the proposal has received far from adequate attention.

 

"This bill is totally unnecessary," said Reno conservationist Susan Lynn, who presented the committee with a letter of opposition to the bill signed by 141 people.

 

The bill "attempts to fix water programs that are not broken and then to acquire water to promote unsustainable growth and profit for special interests," the letter said.

 

Washoe County Commissioner Jim Galloway testified the bill is "fundamentally flawed and contrary to the public good" and said the new entity would enjoy virtually unbridled power.

 

Steve Bradhurst, former Washoe County director of water resources, said the legislation would create a government entity to serve growth, which he said flies in the face of the political will demonstrated by voters last November when they rejected a sales tax increase to pay for public safety improvements needed because of growth. He said it also runs counter to the public's will a decade ago when they rejected candidates who supported government backing of a major water importation project.

 

Officials from the Truckee Meadows Water Authority spoke in favor of the bill but offered an amendment that would bypass legislative action and give local purveyors six months to work out a similar arrangement.

Failing that, the bill would be passed as written on Jan. 1.

 

"I think this is good public policy and makes good sense," said Sen. Maurice Washington, R-Sparks, who was on the interim subcommittee exploring water issues in Washoe County last year.

 

"We need to manage our resources and it makes good public sense to make sure there is an entity that is looking out on behalf of the public," Washington said.

 

Sen. Mike Schneider, D-Las Vegas, suggested a regional approach to water management similar to the one in place in southern Nevada.

 

"It's time that Northern Nevada engage here and start thinking of the future rather than the past," Schneider said. #

http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070410/NEWS11/704100367/1002/NEWS

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