Water officials rain on planning proposal

Legislation to create a water planning task force for western Nevada took shots last week from area water officials who would be affected by the bill.

Senate Bill 275 was introduced by Sen.

Maurice Washington (R-Sparks), the bill's author.

"Water has been a precious resource, a limited resource, particularly in fast growing areas," said Washington, testifying before the Senate Committee on Natural Resources.

"Many of the counties have comprehensive resource plans, but they often lack consistency and coordination.

This is a proactive approach to water planning in western Nevada."

The bill calls for the creation of a task force made up of representatives from various water interests involving the Carson, Truckee and Walker rivers.

The panel would meet quarterly and report to the state legislature biannually to make recommendations for new legislation, said Washington.

The goal, he said, would be "to come up with a master plan that would benefit western Nevada as a whole rather than in part and parcel."

Washington said such a plan would not supercede regional plans already mapped out by the counties, which are all required to develop plans of their own.

"But whether we want to admit it or not we all share some watersheds," said Washington.

Area water officials disagreed.

"Water supply in any of these basins is not readily available for use in other basins," said Gordon DePaoli, an attorney representing the Walker River Irrigation District.

"The entire last century was concerned with litigation around diversions of the Carson and Truckee.

And the Walker River is not allowed by federal decree to transfer water," he said.

"Water is planned on a watershed basis.

The EPA understands that," said Steve Walker,Walker & Associates, a former Washoe County water planner who was representing the Truckee Meadows Water Authority.

Walker, and others, said the bill was unclear.

"The task force isn't onerous," said Walker.

"But there is no concept of what we're going to be doing or what the outcome is."

The bill also left out some key parties, said Walker, including TMWA, the Walker River Irrigation District, the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District and the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe.

Washington agreed to add an amendment that would include several additional representatives on the task force.

The bill already calls for a 13-member task force, including representatives appointed by the governor and the boards of county commissioners from Churchill, Douglas, Lyon, Mineral, Storey and Washoe counties, as well as representatives from Carson City and the Inter-Tribal Council of Nevada Inc.

Still,Walker suggested that an interim committee on public lands hear testimony from the various constituencies to see if such a task force is necessary.

"Then next session if there is commonality we can move forward," said Walker.

Most of those testifying, including Walker, didn't think there was any such commonality.Water supplied by TMWA from the Truckee River is used almost exclusively for municipal purposes while Carson and Walker River waters are used for agriculture.Walker said issues such as conservation would be different for the different systems.

Michael Turnipseed, the director of the state's Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, said that the proposed task force would likely be duplicating the efforts of a statewide panel already in place.

He also said that water pumping is publicly recorded and widely known.

And he concurred with others that water is a local issue.

"Water planning is closely tied to land use planning and we've always considered that a local issue," said Turnipseed.

All in all, nine people from various area water interests testified in opposition to the bill.

In the end,Washington said the group had more in common than they thought.

"I didn't know this bill would create so much controversy," said Washington.

"But we did find some commonality.When you begin to talk about someone's territory they all show up."