January 31, 2008
State Water Engineer Delays Tule Desert Ruling 90 Days

Photo by Dave Maxwell Dorothy Palmer of Vidler Water speaking to County Commissioners

By Dave Maxwell, Staff Writer

Lincoln County Water District General Director Dylan Frehner reported to the County Commissioners January 22 about the meeting with Nevada State Water Engineer Tracy Taylor, regarding the Lincoln County Water District (LCWD)/Vidler Water Company applications in Tule Desert.

He said at the meeting January 16 in Taylor’s office LCWD/Vidler requested that he move forward on their application for an additional 7,240 acre-feet of water held in abeyance from the original application. He said representatives of Virgin Valley Water Authority were also at the meeting.

Primarily, Frehner said, the information given at the meeting was data that had been collected on recharge in Tule, and the data on 6-10 additional wells that have been drilled there.

The original application in Tule Desert was for 9,300 acre-feet. In 2005, the State Engineer granted LCWD/Vidler 2100-acre feet at a price of $7,500/AF totaling $15,750,000.00, and held the remainder in abeyance, but did allow the developer 10-years to purchase an additional 7,240 acre-feet.

LCWD also has an agreement with the National Park Service to not seek more than 7,240 additional acre-feet without having another hearing before the State Engineer. Frehner said, “That doesn’t mean our application can’t be granted for more, we just can’t use any more than the 7,240 acre-feet without going back to a hearing with the NPS before the State Engineer.”

Virgin Valley Water District asked for, and was granted, a 60-day period to respond to the material presented by LCWD regarding their findings in Tule, and to present any objections or conflicting data of their own. Taylor also granted LCWD an additional 30-days after that for rebuttal. “Therefore,” Frehner said, “it’s going to be some time before we have any information from the State Engineer’s office on what’s going to happen.” Dorothy Palmer of Vidler Water, consultant for the Lincoln County Water District, said this was not a surprise. “It’s normal. It’s a part of the process.”

She said Virgin Valley Water was a protestant on the first go-around and has concerns that water taken from Tule Desert might impact wells in the Virgin Valley water basin, some 20 or more miles away. “Even though the Virgin Valley basin is a pretty good distance away,” Mrs. Palmer said, “we still have to go through an impact analysis to demonstrate that those impacts won’t occur.”

Frehner commented that LCWD was complimented on the research and data that was presented to the State Engineer’s office, “that it was good data and well done.”

When a ruling of decision comes down later this spring, Mrs. Palmer said she thought that the State Water Engineer might allow LCWD 4,000 acre-feet, which would bring the total up to 6,100 acre-feet, “Because that is within the recharge for the area. The State Engineer will probably also have us collect additional data to present to him later in requesting the remaining amount.”

She said representatives of Olympia Group, BLT Acquisition Group and Toquop Energy were also at the meeting and each gave short presentations on their respective developments need for the water and how they would use it.

Frehner said it was also pointed out to Mr. Taylor what the needs are right now. “Both the developers and ourselves made it pretty clear to the State Engineer that we would need at least 5,000 acre-feet before it would be economically plausible to start building the needed pipeline to the Toquop Land Act.”

Tule Desert is thought to be able to produce between 8,000 - 10,000 acre-feet of water per year. One acre-foot is equal to 325,851 gallons, enough to supply two normal households of four people for a year.

On another matter on the Water Board agenda, Frehner said he has been meeting with Virgin Valley Water District to be the purveyor of water on a temporary basis in the Toquop area. A draft agreement was made last fall. However, Frehner said just a couple of weeks ago, Virgin Valley made some very significant changes in that agreement. “Some of the changes they wanted to see,” he said, “allowed that any termination of the agreement (between VVWD and LCWD) would make Virgin Valley Water District the sole purveyor and the lines of their service area would change and they would become part of the Toquop.” In other words, the Toquop area would then be within the jurisdiction of Virgin Valley Water District. Frehner said he is still in negotiations with Virgin Valley on this issue.

In other action at the County Water Board meeting members approved:

• Cooperating with Lincoln County on the Open Space Plan to provide further information for the Lincoln County Water Resource Plan.
• Having LCWD board members attend the hearings February 4-15 in Carson City, before the Nevada State Engineer on Southern Nevada Water Authority’s applications to appropriate water in Cave, Dry Lake, and Delamar Valleys in Lincoln County.
• Allow Director Frehner and up to two water board members, to attend the Nevada Water Resource Authority Annual Convention in Mesquite, March 4-6.
• Allow Frehner to attend the National Planning Council Association Conference April 29-May 2, in Las Vegas.

In addition, Frehner said an oral public comment meeting for SNWA will be held Friday, February 8 in Carson City, beginning at 9 AM and will be teleconferenced to the Caliente Elementary School, as well as locations in Ely and Las Vegas, allowing people in Clark, Lincoln, and White Pine counties to make oral public comment. It’s all part of the application process by SNWA for Cave, Dry Lake and Delamar Valleys, he said.