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Water could be contentious issue during Nevada Legislature’s special session

Posted by: Maven on February 12, 2010 at 7:09 am

From the Las Vegas Sun:

“Gov. Jim Gibbons is considering placing on the agenda for this month’s special session legislation to change state water law and counter the impact a Nevada Supreme Court ruling that could affect thousands of water rights, including those needed for the Southern Nevada Water Authority’s pipeline project.

“We are considering adding it to the call,” said Lynn Hettrick, the governor’s deputy chief of staff. The special session, to start Feb. 23, is limited in what it can consider to the items listed by the governor.

Hettrick said Allen Biaggi, director of the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, has proposed that the law be changed so as many as 10,000 water rights granted by the state will not be affected. Some of those water rights approved by the state would impact big developments, Hettrick said. … “

Read more from the Las Vegas Sun by clicking here.

In a updated story, also in the Las Vegas Sun:

“State officials say the ruling could have far-reaching effects beyond the water authority’s pipeline project, affecting thousand of water rights granted back to 1947.

“I don’t know what he’s got up his sleeve,” Assemblyman Jerry Claborn, D-Las Vegas, chairman of the Assembly Natural Resources, Agriculture and Mining Committee, said of Gibbons’ plans. “But water is controversial.”

Susan Lynn, coordinator for the Great Basin Water Network, one of the winners in the court battle with the Southern Nevada Water Authority, wondered whether a special session would allow enough time to adequately discuss such a complex issue. Special legislative sessions are limited to 20 days.

“Water is a contentious issue that needs a lot of discussion,” she said.

But Sen. Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas, a member of the Senate Natural Resources Committee, said finding a solution to the recent ruling wouldn’t need to prolong the special session. The Legislature must clarify a 2003 law to fully restore thousand of water rights, Coffin said.

“I don’t see it as being contentious,” Coffin said. … “

Yeah, right – water’s not contentious…. famous last words! Read more from the Las Vegas Sun by clicking here.

The Chance of Rain blog shares some thoughts:

” … the state engineer’s boss is now writing the Governor to ask for an item to be put on the agenda for a Special Session of the Nevada Legislature later this month. This item, described by the Las Vegas newspaper as a “quick fix,” will ask: Could the lawmakers please break from their tax crisis to revisit a bill that was crafted by Southern Nevada Water Authority lobbyists in 2003? It was intended to amend state law to retroactively strip the protestants of their due process rights going back to 1991, but clearly the Supreme Court needs this clarified.

Yes, you’ve got it: The boss of the man who is adjudicating the case between the protestants and Las Vegas says he’s going to write the Governor on behalf of Las Vegas to use the Legislature to get around the Supreme Court, which just censured his office. Nevadan jurisprudence has a phrase for it. It’s called “gaming the table.””

Read the full text of this post from the Chance of Rain blog by clicking here.

February 12, 2010 · Filed Under Las Vegas & Nevada

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