By Vernon Robison
Moapa Valley Progress
Submitted May 14, 2008
The Moapa Valley Water District (MVWD) Board of Directors last week approved a landmark agreement with the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) dealing with the management of local water resources. The agreement was hailed by Board members and MVWD staff as beneficial to both water entities and the Moapa Valley community.
“Our water resources committee has worked long and hard to come up with an agreement that is truly a win-win for all parties involved,” said MVWD General Manager Brad Huza at Thursday’s Board Meeting.
The agreement creates and strengthens a partnership between MVWD and the SNWA in providing an adequate water supply for the future growth of the Moapa Valley. It also provides a way for the MVWD to avoid the huge expense of treating Muddy River water for municipal use. Finally, it provides for the two entities to work together in water reclamation efforts that would maximize secondary use of wastewater in Moapa Valley.
The main MVWD concession in this agreement was to lower a tight restriction that was placed on the SNWA in a prior 1996 agreement. In the mid 1990s, the SNWA began, what some considered to be, an aggressive campaign to purchase Muddy River Irrigation Company shares. The 1996 agreement attempted to regulate this by placing a 5,000 acre foot per year (afy) cap on the amount of water that could be transferred out of the community and used in the Las Vegas Valley. The current agreement proposed to eliminate that 5,000 afy limit.
An acre foot of water is equal to 325,851 gallons, enough to provide the needs of roughly two Las Vegas households for one year.
In return for this major MVWD concession, the current agreement provides for SNWA to help the MVWD provide for current and future water needs in the community. The new agreement entitles the MVWD to purchase 33% of any Muddy River water rights that the SNWA may acquire going forward; up to 6,000 afy. These rights may be purchased as they are needed by the district at the price for which they were originally purchased by the SNWA.
The agreement also provides a way for the MVWD to defer the expense of a facility to treat Muddy River water for household use. It allows the MVWD to trade its acquired Muddy River water, on an acre foot for acre foot basis, for permitted Coyote Springs water held by the SNWA.
Since groundwater does not need to be treated, this would save the MVWD ratepayers millions of dollars in capital expense. “With this agreement, it is doubtful if we will ever have to build a treatment plant,” Huza said. “That would have been a cost borne by everyone. So it is really a huge value for our ratepayers.”
Finally, the new agreement lays the groundwork for the two entities to partner in building facilities to treat, reclaim and reuse the community’s wastewater. The two entities would split the rights to that treated effluent and the MVWD could again trade its share of that effluent for additional Coyote springs groundwater.
Huza said that the new agreement would provide for at least the next decade of growth in the community. “The water portfolio that results from this agreement, together with the springs and groundwater that we already have, will easily provide for a community of 55,000 – 60,000 people,” Huza said. “It puts us in a very good position going forward.” After that, the agreement still leaves the door open for future cooperation with the SNWA to acquire additional resources as needed.
The only public comment in the meeting came from County Commissioner and Logandale resident, Tom Collins. He suggested that, with this agreement the MVWD should consider lifting its Water Dedication Ordinance which, since 2006, has required developers to acquire water rights sufficient to supply their projects and dedicate them to the district before having their projects approved. Collins blamed this ordinance, for doubling the price of irrigation water shares in the community. In 2006 preferred water shares were selling for $25,000-30,000 per share. Last month, the SNWA put out an open bid on Muddy River irrigation company shares at $50,000 per preferred share.
“The guys that approved that (Water Dedication Ordinance) intended it to be a ‘no-growth-er’; but actually it ended up killing this valley’s agriculture because you run the prices up so far,” Collins said. “That wasn’t an intended consequence, but it is what happened.”
MVWD Board members commented that the agreement directly faced the current realities and, though not perfect, it came away with the best for both parties.
“The fact is that some of this community’s water is going to go out of the community,” said Board member Glen Hardy. “But we have reserved a lot of water for the future growth of the valley. I feel it is time to go ahead and pass this and move forward.”
Board member, Guy Doty said that he shared many of the concerns that had been expressed in the community about whether there was going to be sufficient water to eliminate the 5,000 afy cap. “But the fact is that there are many more positives in this for the community and the district than negatives,” he said. “And that is what drives our decision on it.”
Doty made a motion to approve the agreement. The motion carried with a unanimous vote.
