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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A southern Nevada water official argues that it is in Utah's interest to make a deal with Nevada on development of Snake Valley groundwater on the state line.
Standing in the way of the Southern Nevada Water Authority's groundwater pumping and pipeline project could set a bad precedent for cooperative water ventures throughout the West, general manager Pat Mulroy told The Salt Lake Tribune editorial board on Thursday.
"When one state tries to stop (internal) development of another state's water supply, things can get dicey," she said
Mulroy acknowledged that SNWA sought an accelerated timetable from Utah for reaching a water-sharing agreement on Snake Valley groundwater.
She said the water authority needs to have the framework of a deal in place before Nevada's state engineer holds public hearings on the $1 billion project.
Utah agreed and is doing groundwater analysis in the Snake Valley to meet a September deadline.
Mulroy said she is troubled by opposition to the plan to tap groundwater wells in four rural Nevada basins and ship it to Las Vegas via a 200-mile pipeline.
She objects to language inserted in a congressional bill on the water.
Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, inserted a rider into Nevada Sen. Harry Reid's 2004 Lincoln County land use bill that states that Utah and Nevada must come to an agreement over shared groundwater resources in the Snake Valley before the water authority's project can commence.
Mulroy said that is tantamount to a veto and is being used by SNWA opponents as a club to scuttle the project.
"Let's turn it around," Mulroy said. "Would Utah stand still to allow Nevada to veto a water project being developed in Utah?
"That language is about as unfortunate a thing as I have seen. It's given people a notion that Utah does, in fact, have a veto. The sooner we have an agreement, the better off we'll all be," she said.
Mike Styler, director of the Utah Department of Natural Resources, said Utah has never considered the bill language, written by the state engineer, as a veto.
He said it was inserted to assure Utah's interests in the Snake Valley Basin were protected. Utah claims roughly 40 percent of the groundwater that sits in the aquifer.
"We have never wanted to stop the project," Styler said. "She looks at this as a veto, and I do not. All we intended it to be was leverage for Utah to be able to protect our water rights. And it's working very well because we're at the table."
The accelerated timeline to make a deal with Nevada has been criticized by opponents, who say completion of a detailed U.S. Geological Survey study of groundwater resources in the region is still two years away.
"The supposed draft agreement is a premature, unacceptable document, not in the best interests of Utah, and shows how little our water resources and lives of the west desert's citizens matter," Don Duff, president of the Utah Council of Trout Unlimited said in a letter to Gov. Jon Huntsman earlier this week.
Mulroy says the USGS study will not settle the question of how much water sits below the Snake Valley, or how taking 25,000 acre-feet a year out will impact the resource.
She said the only way to determine that is to start withdrawing water and make adjustments as impacts present themselves
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Information from: The Salt Lake Tribune, http://www.sltrib.com
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
