SUBMITTED BY THE GREAT BASIN WATER NETWORK
Great Basin Water Network is providing the following information in preparation for the State Engineer’s hearing on Southern Nevada Water Authority applications for water in White Pine and Lincoln Counties. The text of a news release from State of Nevada Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources PIO is below and provides basic information about the hearing which begins Monday, Sept. 26 at the Legislative Building in Carson City.
The public comment day is Oct 7 with locations in Carson City, Ely, and Las Vegas. Please note that Great Basin Water Network is still working on securing remote sites in Baker (Baker School) and Lincoln County (Grove C. Dil Medical Center in Caliente) for public comment on October 7. We will send notice IF those sites are confirmed.
GBWN represents over 250 individuals and organizations opposed to the Water Grab. Great Basin Water Network representatives, protestants, and attorney Simeon Herskovits are available for comment and interviews during the hearings. Please contact Susan Lynn at 775/786-9955 or Abby Johnson 775/885-0612 for more information. Please excuse duplications.
Abby Johnson, Great Basin Water Network 775/885-0612
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NEWS RELEASE
For immediate release:
September 20, 2011
CONTACT: Bob Conrad, public information officer, 775-684-2712
Public comment date scheduled for Southern Nevada Water Authority water-right hearing
CARSON CITY, Nev. – The Nevada State Engineer, Jason King, announced today additional locations for public comment during the upcoming Southern Nevada Water Authority water-right hearing.
The hearing is scheduled for multiple weeks beginning September 26, 2011. Public comment is scheduled for October 7, 2011 at 8 a.m. and will be video cast from several locations.
The locations for public comment are:
Nevada Legislature
401 South Carson Street
Room 1214
Carson City, Nevada
Grant Sawyer State Office Building
555 East Washington Avenue
Room 4412
Las Vegas, Nevada
Great Basin College
2115 Bobcat Drive
Room 112
Ely, Nevada
Written public comments are also being accepted until 5 p.m., December 2, 2011. Comments should be addressed to the attention of Susan Joseph-Taylor, Chief Hearing Officer, Office of the State Engineer, 901 South Stewart Street, Suite 2002, Carson City, Nevada 89701.
The hearing will be broadcast by audio and video on the Internet from the Nevada Legislature: http://www.leg.state.nv.us/MeetingDisplay/AudioVideo/.
The hearing will be held during normal business hours. The schedule of case presentations is:
- September 26 through October 6: Opening statements and SNWA (applicant)
- October 7: Public comment
- October 10–14: SNWA (applicant)
- October 31: Henry Vogler, Juab County, Utah, Millard County, Utah (protestants)
- November 1: EskDale Center, Great Basin Water Network (protestants)
- November 2-10: Great Basin Water Network (protestant)
- November 14 and 15: Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation, Duckwater Shoshone Tribe, Ely Shoshone Tribe (protestants)
- November 16: Corporation of the Presiding Bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (protestant)
- November 17: Long Now Foundation (protestant)
- November 18: Closing arguments.
Hearing Background
In 1989, the Las Vegas Valley Water District filed 146 water-right applications to appropriate nearly all of the unappropriated groundwater in 27 hydrographic basins, for a total appropriation of 180,000 acre-feet of groundwater. It later withdrew 32 applications from 10 of the basins and other applications were transferred to Lincoln County. Most of the applications have been assigned to the Southern Nevada Water Authority, which was created after the filing of the applications.
Permits were granted on applications filed in Spring Valley, Cave Valley, Delamar Valley and Dry Lake Valley; however, the Nevada Supreme Court held that the statutory process for postponing action on the applications had not been followed and remanded consideration of the applications back to the State Engineer with the requirement that the protest period be re-opened. The applications were republished in early 2011, which re-opened the protest period, and the new hearing does not include Snake Valley.
The total acre-feet of groundwater requested by SNWA from Delamar, Dry Lake, Cave and Spring Valleys is 125,976 acre-feet. There are applications pending in other hydrographic basins that have not been acted on, and the protest period on those applications will also be re-opened when the State Engineer is ready to move forward with action on those applications.
Information
More information, including documents, exhibits and groundwater basin inventories, is available online: http://water.nv.gov/hearings/upcoming/springetal/.
Nevada Water Law
An overview of Nevada water law is available at: http://dcnr.nv.gov/documents/documents/nevada-water-law-101/
