October 25, 2007
County Water Resources Workshop

By Dave Maxwell

Dylan Frehner speaking at the Water Board workshop

A workshop to discuss and collect data for a proposed Lincoln County Water District Master Plan was held on Tuesday at the County Courthouse. Representatives from community water boards, Lincoln County Power, and those having developments on county lands attended.

Dylan Frehner, General Manager of the Lincoln County Water Board, said the reason for the workshop was to begin the process of updating the County’s master plan because it has not been done since 2001 and things have changed considerably since then. New growth issues, BLM land releases, water supply and demand to meet the need have to be included in the plan to reflect both current and future growth.

He said, in the water resource plan as it now is, “There is not a lot of connection between the individual entities, such as Alamo Sewer and Water, Panaca Farmstead Water, the City of Caliente, or Pioche Public Utilities in regards to where water resources are going to be developed.”

It was the intent of the workshop, “To try to look at where development is going to happen and where water is going to come from to feed that development,” Frehner said.

However, there was no attempt to formulate a plan at the meeting, but instead hear from one another and “Let everyone know about the need to work together to come up with a plan that will work for the entire county, instead of just one entity trying to put it together and not being happy with it.”

The purpose of developing a new master plan, Frehner explained, “Is to have information that will show how much water need is projected and where it will come from. The public can look at the plan and have a clear understanding of where water is going and what it is projected to do in the county. At the same time, other public utility services in Lincoln County will also have a clear understanding of what growth projections are and how they can help meet the needs.”

Mick Lloyd, manager of Lincoln County Power, said he felt it was very important for LC Power to know what the growth and “build-out” plans of each community are in order for LC Power to know how to plan for the present and the future, to be able to meet the electrical needs of communities and developers. Keeping them informed is vitally important, he said.

However, to get the job done, Doug Carriger, representing Tuffy Ranch Properties, commented that the County, by themselves, “Probably does not have the science or the expertise to put this type of a plan together.” He recommended that an engineering firm and water resource people be hired “To look at the plan and put it together so that all of us would have an interest in the water resources in Lincoln County.” That would provide a “Firm foundation that is based on some science and engineering as we go forward,” he said. “It will mean a lot to the existing communities of Lincoln County and the developing communities. As any of the communities grow, they would know what resources they have, and the Lincoln County Water District would know where they need to go to get water and how to supply the water to them.”

Carriger stated further, “With such a plan, the board would be in a position to answer the question Do we have the water to support the new developments and our existing communities and whether or not there should be some limitations placed on the development based on the resources that are available?”

County Planning Director Clint Wertz said Lincoln County is expected to grow at the same annual 2-3 percent as it has been doing for the past 15 years. But where that growth takes place the fastest will depend on which communities have the infrastructure for water, power and sewer, most available. BLM plans to dispose of more land in the County, but just where developers can build on it, rests heavily on where essential services will be most available to them. Some areas will be very suitable and others will not.

Frehner presented a map that showed all the municipal water filings in the county and some outside the county, that have been made by Lincoln/Vidler, City of Mesquite/Virgin Valley Water District and the Las Vegas Water District. He felt the county needs to look not at who has the filings, but rather how many there actually are and where the water supply is going to be.

Water for the Toquop area of the Lincoln County Land Act and the Sithe Global Power plant are planned to come from two sources: Tule Desert and Clover Valley. Clover Valley also supplies water for the City of Caliente, but he said he thought that there is enough there to meet the needs of everybody. Lincoln/Vidler already has 2100 acre feet permitted to them in Tule Desert and have submitted applications to the State Water Engineer for another 7,000-acre feet. A ruling on that is pending.

An acre-foot of water is 325,851 gallons. 0.7 of an acre-foot a year works out to 625 gallons a day, considerably more than the average suburban household with a lawn uses. Frehner said the LCWD would like to see where households would be able to only need about .03 acre-foot per year.

Future meetings regarding the Water District master plan will be announced later.