Agencies drop protest of water plan

"I believe the general feeling among the parties was that this agreement can perhaps serve as a model" in reviewing the status of other valleys in the pumping plan, said Frank Quimby, an Interior Department spokesman in Washington, D.C.

According to news releases from the Southern Nevada Water Authority and the department, the agreement involves the authority, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the National Park Service. It resolves objections the four agencies had to the Spring Valley Project.

It sets up a system that allows water development while protecting the environment. A network to monitor the groundwater will be built and the parties will prevent or mitigate adverse environmental impacts.

"There are already in the neighborhood of 25 existing monitoring well facilities in Spring Valley," Davis said in a telephone interview.

About a dozen more monitoring wells would be installed at locations wanted by the federal agencies, and shallow groundwater facilities will help monitor the water table.

Also, production wells will show the water table in Spring Valley. All of these facilities will be "effectively serving as an early monitoring system," he said.

Before any groundwater effects could propagate to areas of concern to the federal government, such as Great Basin National Park near Baker, Nev., they would be detected by the monitoring system.

"The agreement also allows for them (the federal agencies) to work with us to take any necessary measures to protect those resources," Davis said.

That includes "curtailment of pumping" or moving pumps if necessary, he said. The federal government and Nevada water agencies are dedicated to protecting existing water rights and the environment, he said.

According to Quimby, the agreement sets up groups that will operate in "this three-M system — this monitoring, managing and mitigation system that they agreed to."

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