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Las Vegas water plans could affect California’s Inyo County

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 16, 2007 at 7:23 am

Here’s an interesting article in the Inyo County Register about the Southern Nevada Water Authority’s pumping plans. The concern is that Las Vegas will pump water from aquifers straddling the California-Nevada border, affecting Inyo and possibly even San Bernardino counties (The Owens Valley is located in Inyo County):

The aquifers that would feed any additional development east of the Death Valley area run under the Nevada/California state line. Inyo County and its California counterparts should not sit quietly on the sidelines while Nevada develops what could be new towns in the desert, especially if those towns suck water out of an aquifer that rests partly in Inyo County. The county should look to form some sort of semi-official advisory council or board to address issues common to counties on both sides of the border, suggested Inyo County Fifth District Supervisor Richard Cervantes.

“The big one is water,” Cervantes said when ticking off the potential issues that affect Inyo County stemming from developments and growth planned for the Nevada desert just across the state border. “Underground aquifers don’t respect state lines,” he noted.

Inyo County Board of Supervisors seem to agree, and want a workshop on the issues the region is facing, and what format the commission might take.

Recent developments in Las Vegas and Nevada prompted a bit more urgency at this time about keeping track of what Inyo County’s cross-border governments might be up to.
Cervantes even suggested that Inyo County might want to start considering Clark County (Las Vegas) as an adversary, or at least not much of a pal, when it comes to water issues.
“We should keep a close eye on Clark County’s water acquisition moves,” he said.

Cervantes also noted that Clark County [Southern Nevada Water Authority] has been purchasing land and water rights in the northwest corner of the state, and recently won approval to pump water from the area and send it south to Las Vegas.

Distrust is still evident in Inyo County, whose water resources have long since been claimed for other distant places:

With a dry L.A. to the south and a scheming Las Vegas to the east, and both cities growing at a nice clip, Inyo County’s water will only become more important and a bigger target in the coming years.

While the relationship between the county and LADWP is outlined in a half-dozen agreements and a similar number of court cases, Cervantes suggested that Inyo County begin talking with Clark County and Nevada now, before conflicts arise that might necessitate more forceful action from the county or the state.

To read the full text of the story from the Inyo County Register, click here.

September 16, 2007 · Filed Under Owens Valley & Mono Lake, Southwest Water Issues

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