The Water Authority's Cash Cow In the fertile fields of the Spring Valley, the Southern Nevada Water Authority is a colossus. It spent $80 million in public dollars to buy up most of the ranches in the valley at prices three to four times the going rate for land, and millions more in support of the operation. In acquiring these 23,000 acres, SNWA also acquired 4,000 sheep, 1,700 cattle and an alfalfa farm. Four full time employees were hired. They in turn hire subcontractors. SNWA is operating the ranches so it can legally hang on to the water rights while waiting for the pipeline to be built. "SNWA did not buy these ranches to operate them as a profit. They are a tool to manage the environment and the watershed," said SNWA Deputy General Manager Richard Wimmer. The water authority's Dick Wimmer says the plan is to pump thousands of acre feet of groundwater but to leave the surface water without harming the land. If the plan is to not make money, it's working. Records obtained by the I-Team show the ranches spend an average of more than $45,000 each month to operate, sometimes more than $80,000 a month. In the first year, the overall loss was a projected $731,000. SNWA expects a small profit in the coming year. Area ranchers who were already critical of the pipeline plan are not impressed. "They are in over their heads, that it takes more than a belt buckle and a new pair of boots and a Stetson hat to run one of these ranches," said Hank Vogler. "This is going to be a financial disaster, but money doesn't mean anything to them down there," said Dean Baker. For example, when SNWA learned it needed its own brand for livestock, it assigned the task to its staff which considered 17 different designs over nine months at a cost of more than $5,000. Not exactly how a typical rancher would do it....