http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nevada/2006/oct/24/102410009.html
Las Vegas SUN
October 24, 2006
Nevada company wants
to pump Arizona water
ASSOCIATED PRESS
PHOENIX (AP) - A Nevada
company wants to reach across the border
into northwestern Arizona to pump
groundwater and pipe it back to growing
Mesquite, Nev.
The effort by Wind River
Resources to get Arizona Department of
Water Resources approval to pump as much
as 14,000 acre-feet of water a year from
the Muddy Creek aquifer beneath
Littlefield already faces some strong
opposition.
"This falls very squarely
into the category of a bad idea," said
Kris Mayes, a member of the Arizona
Corporation Commission, which regulates
many water companies in rural parts of
the state. "Arizona's groundwater should
stay in Arizona."
Other opponents include the
Nevada owner of a chunk of Arizona real
estate near Littlefield who also wants
the water for his own master planned
development. And the water company that
supplies Littlefield is also opposed.
"They are trying to
evaporate this community," said Bob
Frisby, president of Beaver Dam Water
Co. "We have a lot of potential for
growth here along I-15, and the water in
Arizona should be used for that so we
can incorporate and grow and contribute
to the tax base of Arizona, not export
it all to Nevada."
An acre-foot of water
equals 326,000 gallons, enough to supply
a family of four for a year.
Mesquite is a casino town
near the Arizona line with an estimated
population of 15,000. But recent land
trades brought federal Bureau of Land
Management land into the private domain
and development is expected to rapidly
increase its size.
Wind River applied for a
permit from Arizona and a hearing is set
for late November in Littlefield, which
sits just east of the Nevada line in the
far northwestern corner of the state.
Mayes said she wants the Arizona
Corporation Commission to formally
intervene in the case, saying a permit
would harm at least one Arizona water
district.
Right now, Littlefield has
a bar, a school, a convenience store and
about 1,500 residents alongside
cottonwood-lined Beaver Dam Wash.
But Jack Riley, a Las Vegas
developer who bought 2,000 acres along
Interstate 15 near Littlefield, said he
wants to build a master-planned
community.
"I bought that in large
part because of all the excellent
groundwater so near the surface on the
Arizona side," Riley said. "So now we're
up against a group who has made out in
their filings with the Water Resources
Department like no one lives there and
it's just a desert wasteland that
Mesquite should be able to use as it
sees fit."
The general manager of the
district that provides water in Mesquite
said Wind River approached them with the
proposal.
Mesquite currently uses
less than half the 12,000 acre feet it
is permitted to pump for its 19,000
customers, said Mike Winters, general
manager of the Virgin Valley Water
District, so it really doesn't need the
water right away.
"We can serve 40,000 to
45,000 people here with water supplies
we know we can get," Winters said. The
only reason Mesquite is interested is
because "they (Wind River) said they
could deliver it for us over the long
term to the state line with their
equipment."
"Our cost analysis showed
our own water would be cheaper any other
way," he added.
Arizona law says water can
be taken out of the state for a
"reasonable and beneficial" use in
another state with a permit if approved
by the director of water resources.
In a letter to the Water
Resources Department, Phoenix attorney
Maxine Becker wrote that any delays in
the hearing beyond mid-December would be
a "significant hardship" for Wind River
Resources and those living in Mesquite,
"who are in need of certainty of their
future water supply."
---
Information from: The
Arizona Republic, http://www.azcentral.com
