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Groups seek to block Las Vegas ‘water grab’, while the Nevada legislature considers new water legislation

Posted by: Maven on March 25, 2009 at 5:49 am

From the Capital Press:

A coalition including ranchers, farmers and conservationists is turning up the volume on efforts to block a plan to pipe billions of gallons of groundwater a year from the northeast part of Nevada to Las Vegas.

State Engineer Tracy Taylor relied on bad data and flawed reasoning in deciding last July to let the Southern Nevada Water Authority pump some 6.1 billion gallons of water a year from the rural Cave, Dry Lake and Delamar valleys, coalition lawyer Simeon Herskovits said Tuesday. “We’re requesting that the judge reverse the state engineer and instruct the state to go back to do the job correctly – to actually analyze what is and isn’t acceptable in terms of impacts and the effect on the environment,” Herskovits said.

Herskovits, based in El Prado, N.M., filed a 30-page opening brief March 16 with visiting Nevada state District Court Judge Norman C. Robison, who is hearing a challenge to the water ruling in Pioche.

State water rights hearing officer Susan Joseph-Taylor declined comment on the brief or the lawsuit, which was originally filed Aug. 8 against the state engineer and the Nevada Division of Water Resources, and names the water authority as an affected party. The state attorney general is expected to file a written reply to the court. Oral arguments aren’t set.

More from the Capital Press by clicking here.

Meanwhile, the San Jose Mercury News is reporting that the Nevada legislature is debating a multitude of water bills, one of which would require more studies before transfers of water from one basin to another are approved:

An Assembly panel on Tuesday debated measures to raise fees to ensure the state can properly oversee its water resources and to conduct research on water resources in arid Nevada before water is piped from one location to another.

Besides the fee plan, AB480, and the research measure, AB416, the Assembly Government Affairs Committee also is considering AB376 and AB377, dealing with water conservation and applications for water use.

While Gov. Jim Gibbons has said he’s opposed to higher fees and taxes in most cases, Government Affairs Chairwoman Marilyn Kirkpatrick, D-North Las Vegas, said, “It’s about time that we stand up as leaders and start putting things out there.”

Kirkpatrick said the state water engineer’s office, facing staffing cuts under the governor’s proposed budget, needs “the tools to do what they need to do” and the fee revenues generated by AB480 would help accomplish that.

Read more from the San Jose Mercury News by clicking here.

March 25, 2009 · Filed Under Las Vegas & Nevada

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