By Vernon Robison
Moapa Valley Progress
Published August 20, 2008
Secondary use water will be made available in the upcoming year for Moapa Valley landowners who don’t own irrigation shares but want to water pastures and ranchettes. The Moapa Valley Water District (MVWD) Board of Directors approved a plan last week to establish phase I of its proposed secondary water system.
At the Board Meeting, held Thursday, August 14, MVWD General Manager Brad Huza stated the need for the program. With recent agreements between the Southern Nevada Water Authority and the Muddy Valley Irrigation Company, more and more Muddy River water would be flowing out of the valley.
In May, SNWA set a lease price on MVIC water at $1700 per preferred share per year. Huza explained that this may have the effect of pricing out the owner of local horse property who wants to keep green pasture but doesn’t currently own water shares and has previously leased water from MVIC shareholders.
“We’ve heard from some of those people that if they can’t lease the irrigation water, they plan to run lines out to the pasture and irrigate with potable water,” Huza said. Huza explained that, left unchecked, this could cause problems for the district. First, a test pump of Coyote Springs water is planned in the near future which would send a good deal of water through the MVWD system. “This will create a real demand on our distribution system,” Huza said. “Having a lot of people irrigating pastures with potable supply will further tax these areas.”
Huza also pointed out that water mains in many of the pasture areas in question are small water mains with little capacity for higher peak use. “If four or five people turn on water to the turf, it could cause some trouble,” he said.
The increased maintenance and repair costs that might result from this scenario could come at a tremendous expense to the district, Huza said.
To solve this the first phase of secondary water system is proposed. The MVWD currently owns 47 preferred shares of MVIC water. The proposal would offer to lease those shares, at one share per acre, to local landowners needing irrigation water. The five year lease would be offered at the price of $250 per share per year.
Certain restrictions would be placed on this program, Huza said. Participants in the program can not have sold or leased MVIC shares after 2006. In addition, they can’t own or hold other water shares that could be used to service the property. All leased shares in the program are subject to verification of if they are being used. All of these restrictions would be in place to avoid people profiteering from the system.
Other restrictions also were recommended. Participants would be required to take and use the water within six months of the lease to avoid people stockpiling the resource. Availability of leased water would be subject to capacity on the ditch needed to deliver the water. Finally, the lease would include a call provision allowing the district to call the water back for any reason at the end of any given year during the five year term.
Huza explained that this was just the first phase of the secondary water program. The second phase being planned would include the construction of a delivery system to supply water from the Bowman Reservoir to high turf users in Logandale such as the Fairgrounds, park and schools. The MVWD would utilize water rights leased from the LDS church for this phase, Huza said.
Board Member, Glen Hardy said that he had been approached by community members asking why the district would lease the water for $250 when it was worth $1700 on the regional market.
Huza responded that the goals of the program would bring a higher benefit to the community. Board Member Guy Doty agreed. “This will help the valley to stay green,” Doty said. “That has real value and, I think, it is of tremendous benefit to the community.”
“Sure we could sell high to the SNWA but it would be a roll of the dice,” Huza remarked. “Then we have people who will irrigate pastures with potable water and will cause us to take some pretty high costs in repairs to the system.”
“If you take the position of always selling at the highest market, you have to throw out phase II of the secondary water program,” Huza continued. “A secondary use program must be significantly below potable water costs to make it worth it to the user.”
