By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
A plan to pump water from the Snake Valley aquifer to Las Vegas won’t happen for two more years or until 2011.
Nevada State Engineer Tracy Taylor, last Friday, rescheduled the planned administrative hearing on the Southern Nevada Water Authority’s proposal to construct a $3.5 billion, 285-mile-long pipeline which could pump 176,000 acre-feet per year from Great Basin agricultural land to Las Vegas.
Last month, the water authority told Taylor that the June 19 deadline to provide required documents was impossible. The authority cited “significant and recurring delays” in the review process set up by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management as the problem.
Back in March, Juab County Commissioners held a public hearing to take comments on a county plan to seek Community Impact Board funding to conduct an EIS study for both Juab and Millard Counties.
The commission determined to make a stand to do what is possible to prevent Nevada from taking water which is rightfully water belonging to West Desert citizens.
“Snake Valley is located in the West Desert of Utah and Nevada, includes multiple counties in both states and encompasses significant federal, state and private land holdings,” said Mike Seely, Juab County administrator.
He explained that the Southern Nevada Groundwater transfer would directly affect residents in the West Desert of both Juab and Millard Counties in Utah and also will affect Nevada residents.
As time was considered critical, he said, Juab county applied as the lead agency for emergency funding in order to launch an immediate economic study of the impacts of the water taking.
Meantime, Las Vegas officials asked to push back that June 19, 2009, deadline a year. They said it was important to see the BLM’s draft environmental impact statement. That needed to be done before they could proceed.
Stalemate: BLM’s project manager said the EIS couldn’t be completed until SNWA laid out how its computer models would work.
The reason that BLM officials are involved is because the proposed pipeline would cross public land.
Water from under Snake Valley is located in an aquifer that straddles the state line between Utah and Nevada. Las Vegas has proposed pumping water from that aquifer into a pipeline which would deliver it to that city.
Nevada’s BLM officials said SNWA proponents have always known the authority must eventually explain how the project would affect the regional environment.
“The residents of the Snake Valley face a very real threat to their future with the planned Southern Nevada Water Authority groundwater pumping and pipeline project,” said Seely. “This water pumping and pipeline project represents a ‘taking’ from the Snake Valley residents.”
In the notice Taylor issued postponing the hearing, Taylor indicated he would hold the hearing in 2011 on date to be set later.
Since the water agency had asked for the delay, he said, because of pending lawsuits, Taylor said he believed it “prudent” to allow more time before the hearing. That way, he said, there would be time for all interested parties to complete their own scientific studies and prepare evidence.
Juab County plans to be one of those agencies who will have a study prepared of the economic impacts of the water taking. Taylor has planned to consider such evidence in determining the amount of water that will remain.
“Current County plans either do not specifically address potential growth and development in Snake Valley, or are outdated,” said Seely. “We propose to update and expand upon existing plans and develop plans specifically for Snake valley as well as coordinate the planning process and integrate the plans of the various government entities.”
The State of Utah, the Great Basin Water Network, Juab and Millard Counties are among those opposing the pipeline plan, citing potential harm to the health of Great Basin National Park, Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge, tribal groups, ranching, public lands and Utah’s air quality.
Salt Lake and Utah counties have sued in a Nevada court.
Water taken from the aquifer would allow vegetation to die, the land would become barren and resulting winds would blow dust-storm clouds to the Wasatch Front. Particulate pollution is already a concern in that area of the state.
However, the move made by Taylor reportedly caught both sides of the heated debate over water rights in the Snake Valley by surprise.
Taylor, in his capacity as the Nevada state engineer, issued the order postponing hearings on the issue for two years.
An “evidentiary-exchange” hearing, originally set for June, and subsequent public hearings, set to commence in late September, are now slated to begin in the fall of 2011.
On March 30, the Southern Nevada Water Authority delivered a letter to the state engineer asking for a one-year extension to better prepare for the hearings. Taylor determined to give all interested parties enough time to prepare and set the hearings for a time two years away.
A group of 100 scientists signed and sent a letter to the governors of Utah and Nevada just this past month. In that letter, the claim was made that: “the sciences cannot support this project.”
