Suit challenges state engineer's SNWA ruling

A Douglas County judge will be in Ely next week to review a controversial ruling that could send 6.1 billion gallons of groundwater flowing each year from three rural valleys to Las Vegas. The Sept. 25 evidentiary hearing will focus on a legal challenge of Nevada State Engineer Tracy Taylor's July 2008 ruling that gave the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) the right to pump 18,755 acre-feet of groundwater annually from Cave, Delamar and Dry Lake valleys. The Las Vegas Valley Water District initially filed applications for the rights to more than 11 billion gallons of groundwater from the three valleys in Lincoln County. (A portion of Cave Valley extends into White Pine County.) But Taylor limited the SNWA to 3.8 billion gallons per year from Dry Lake Valley, 1.5 billion gallons from Cave Valley and 800 million gallons from Delamar Valley. Aside from its conditions on the SNWA, Taylor's ruling defines the perennial yield from each valley, or the maximum amount of groundwater that can be pumped in a given year without depleting an aquifer. Herskovits argues that Taylor's findings regarding the perennial yields from Cave and Dry Lake valleys are flawed. He told White Pine County commissioners Sept. 9 that he fears groundwater from the two basins would be "seriously over-appropriated" if Taylor's ruling were allowed to stand as is. Moreover, he said that Nevada law requires the state engineer's office to reject an application if it would have negative impacts on future economic development. In this instance, reduced groundwater flows from Cave Valley could affect existing agricultural users in White River Valley, he said...ElyTimes