2 BLM options raise hopes for keeping water in Snake Valley

The Bureau of Land Management's most recent list of alternatives for helping the Southern Nevada Water Authority find more water for Las Vegas includes two options that would keep drills and pumps out of the Snake Valley along the Utah/Nevada border.

Utah-based critics of a Water Authority proposal to pump water from the Snake Valley to Las Vegas fear that if the Nevada State Engineer approves the pumping later this year, it would drain groundwater supplies in parts of Millard County and possibly create a dust bowl that would have air-quality impacts all the way to the Wasatch Front.

The BLM options were released in the agency's December right-of-way update for the BLM's Clark, Lincoln and White Pine Counties Groundwater Development Environmental Impact Statement.

If the BLM chooses either of the two options — out of 11 alternatives in its final environmental-impact statement — it would mean the Water Authority would not be granted right-of-way access through federal land into the Snake Valley.

Utah Association of Counties' Mark Ward is hopeful the BLM will become the spoiler to the Water Authority's plans for Snake Valley.

Each alternative "is up for serious consideration," said Ward, senior policy analyst on public lands and natural-resource management.

Ward said the best of the two BLM options only allow intermittent pumping in the Spring, Dry Lake, Delamar and Cave valleys, which means pumps could be shut down if any of those areas began to dry up.

Either of the two BLM options that Ward prefers would only allow as many BLM rights of way as Congress authorized in its 2004 Lincoln County Conservation, Recreation and Development Act. That law, Ward added, created a pipeline corridor through Clark and Lincoln counties, but not White Pine County, which is where Nevada's portion of the Snake Valley is located.

Water Authority spokesman J.C. Davis said Friday that his agency will make a "very strong" case against the two options that would prevent access to existing water rights in Snake Valley.

As for a dust-bowl scenario, Davis said such fears were unfounded. "There's a huge amount of naturally recharging water in the Snake Valley," most of which originates in Nevada, he said.

Utah and Nevada officials continue to work on an agreement that will lay out rules on how to divvy up shared resources in the Snake Valley aquifer, he said.

Another hurdle for the Water Authority's proposal may be if the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declares the least chub as a federally protected species. The tiny fish exists only in a few areas located in Utah, and it could disappear if its habitat near the Nevada border dries up.

Davis said his agency's goal all along has been to share water with Utah equitably and without damaging the environment or wildlife.

---

E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com

Recent comments