NV • Fallon sells rights to water program

Quarter-million for Pahrump rights

APRIL 8 | The Nye County (Nevada) Board of Commissioners has agreed to pay $250,000 to the community of Pahrump so it can obtain water rights needed for a fairgrounds and related activity. The Pahrump Town Board has agreed to purchase of up to 25 acre feet of water for the project. It had applied for the water rights a year ago, but state approvals and financing have been issues until recently. The Pahrump area, northwest of Las Vegas, has been one of the fastest-growing parts of Nevada, which in most recent years has been the fastest-growing state.
[see the Pahrump Valley Times, April 8]

Down to the water

APRIL 6, 2006 | The remote desert country of Lincoln County, north of Las Vegas, has few people and little economy - mostly ranching - left. So now county officials want to sell off one of the few assets remaining: Part of the county's water.
Their request to do that has gone before the Nevada state engineer, who is expected to rule soon. The proposal has been questioned by officials from the state Department of Water Resources, who suggest that state law may bar this kind of transfer of water rights. The water is being sought by Harvey Whittemore, a developer from Reno, who is proposing a massive development - including as many as 82,000 residences - on the border of Lincoln and Clark counties. [see also the Las Vegas Sun, April 6]

Sempra sells generation rights

APRIL 4, 2006 | Following up on its decision to veer away from power production in the Idaho-Nevada area and move into other projects, Sempra Energy says it plans to sell its water rights associated with the proposed Granite Fox coal-fired power plant, a 1,200-megawatt facility planned close to Gerlach, Nevada. That site is northeast of Susanville, California. The plant was slated to use upwards of 12,000 acre feet of water per year, to be drawn from the Smoke Creek Basin in Nevada.
Sempra officials did however tell the Reno Gazette Journal newspaper that "For its Granite Fox power project, [Company spokesman Art] Larson said the company will maintain options on 2,000 acres and 27,000 acre-feet of water from the Sam Jaksick family of Reno, which bought out a former Smoke Creek Desert rancher.
[see the Lassen County Tribune, April 4]

Las Vegas buys water from church

MARCH 28, 2006| The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on March 26 agreed to sell about 2,000 acre-feet of water per year, for a full decade, for $7.2 million to the Southern Nevada Water Authority, which supplies water to the Las Vegas area.
The general manager's office at the Authority said that this agreement may mark its first water purchase from a church.
The 10-year deal would be up for renewal after an additional 10 years. Because of the water's flow, other entities also will be involved. Approval will be needed from the federal Department of the Interior.
[see the Las Vegas Sun, March 27]

Washoe County okays water import

DECEMBER 20, 2005 | Washoe county officials are widening their field in considering water options for dealing with their rapid growth:
A project to import 8,000 acre feet of water annually from the Honey Lake basin to the North Valleys won unanimous support Tuesday night from the Washoe County Commission for a special-use permit. Vidler Water Co. plans to pipe water 28 miles from the Fish Springs Ranch for use in the Lemmon Valley and Stead area, and officials expect construction to start in the first half of next year. But no water would be pumped until a final decision is made on a federal environmental study, which is in its final stages. …
[see the Reno Gazette Journal, December 14]

TAKING ON THE MEXICO CITY FORUM A guest opinion in the Cook County News Herald of Grand Marais, Minnesota, blasted the approach taken at the March Fourth World Water Forum in Mexico City which equated water rights with human rights.
"After the first day of the meeting, however, it became clear that the government and corporate agents were only interested in turning water management into a business opportunity, whereupon the NGOs and activists established an alternative forum intent on identifying access to clean water as a fundamental right . . . If we accept the position that water is a common good, and an inalienable right shared by all people, does that mean that folks in China or France have as much right to Lake Superior’s water as we do?
Perhaps we would be better served if we didn’t use the concept of human rights to justify our control of Lake Superior’s water, but rather, focused on Cibber’s observation that possession is eleven points in the law."