An attorney for the LDS Church recently sent a letter to the Nevada state engineer, expressing concern about the amount of water available in Spring Valley and advising that no decision should be made until completion of a groundwater study by the U.S. Geological Survey late next year.

Water requests for the Spring Valley Project amount to 91,220 acre-feet while the Snake Valley Project has requests up to 50,680, said Tracy Taylor, the Nevada state engineer.

While that is the total possible diversion, less than that might actually be needed. "There's been talk they're asking for 25,000" acre-feet Taylor said, referring to the Snake Valley portion.

On Wednesday, nearly 50 residents of Nevada and Utah, joined by conservation groups, asked the Nevada Supreme Court to overturn a ruling that only those who filed protests in 1989 have standing to launch official protests now. A press release from the group petitioning the high court said the Nevada state engineer denied their right to protest on July 27.

A public hearing is scheduled on the Spring Valley applications in September, Nevada State Engineer Tracy Taylor said. He affirmed the 1989 date.

"The protest period is defined by statute, and that time to protest was 1989," he said. "We allow for public comment at the hearing."

A day has been set aside for public comment, he said. Both official protests and public comments can give evidence. But only those who protested in 1989 will be able to cross-examine other witnesses, he said.

After the hearing, which will last through September, the public will be able to file additional comments for 30 days. "Sometime after that" Taylor will decide on the water rights, Taylor said.

Asked if the decision should be made after the USGS finishes its study, he said, "That's an argument that could be presented at the hearing."

Ken Hill, a resident of Partoun, Juab County, is among those filing the petition. Some neighbors "were just young kids at the time (1989) and obviously they couldn't do it," file protests, he said.

Also, communications to the remote desert region "were really poor back then ... so we just didn't hear about it, basically."

Cecil Garland, a rancher in Callao, Juab County, said his daughter is 30 years old. But in 1989, she was only 14, unable to file a protest.

"She is disenfranchised, and that goes for a great many of us," he said. Those are people who didn't have the interest at the time, were not aware of the water crisis and "who couldn't envision the drought that we had."

Ed Alder, one of those filling the petition, lives in Trout Creek, Juab County. He is the "teacher and principal and bus driver" for West Desert School in Trout Creek. He also has a cattle ranch and water rights.

In 1989, he said, "I wasn't even aware that water rights were being filed upon."

Also, when water is used for irrigation in the region, most of it eventually runs back into the aquifer. But with trans-basin diversions, he said, "the water will be removed permanently from the aquifer."

Garland said if the water table drops, it could kill the greasewood shrubs that anchor the desert soil.

"Those roots can only go down about 45 feet in search of water," he said. "If you lower the water table down below those roots and they die, you don't have anything to hold the fine sands and silts together on the valley floor."

The result, Garland said, would be "blowin' dust storms."

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