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MVWD Board Forges Key Agreement With Moapa Band

By VERNON ROBISON

Moapa Valley Progress

Members of the Moapa Valley Water District Board of Trustees voted unanimously to approve a landmark cooperative agreement with the Moapa Band of Paiutes during a meeting held Thursday, June 9 in Overton.

The agreement was adopted by board members as a way to further protect and strengthen the district’s valuable water rights while, at the same time, assisting the Moapa Band in its desires for expansion to its reservation territories.
“There has been a lot of effort and hours that have gone into this agreement,” said MVWD Board Chairman Ken Staton. “I am comfortable with it and I think that we are well protected by it.”
The agreement was not the first time that the district had worked together with the tribe in reaching a mutually beneficial compromise.

In 2006, the district and the tribe worked in coordination with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Southern Nevada Water Authority, Muddy Valley Irrigation Company and other entities in an agreement which aimed at protecting the in-stream flows in the Warm Springs area. That agreement established that if the acquifer declined to certain levels, groundwater pumping in the region would have to be redistributed. Included in the region discussed in that agreement was the Arrow Canyon well site, one of the district’s most vital resources in supplying the community.

As a result of the 2006 agreement, the district sought for alternative potential well sites which could be located and developed down-gradient from the Warm Springs area. In an extensive study, MVWD hydrologists identified seven possible well sites located southwest of Warm Springs on BLM-managed land.

The current agreement dealt specifically with those well sites. The agreement was set in motion because of federal legislation being sought by the Moapa Band. In the last two sessions of Congress, Senator Harry Reid had introduced legislation on behalf of the tribe that would expand the Moapa Reservation by nearly 26,000 acres.

Part of that proposed expansion would push the Reservation to the north into areas that would include five of the seven proposed well sites for the MVWD. According to MVWD General Manager Joe Davis, these five were considered the most promising sites by the district’s hydrologists.

To protect the district’s water claims in those sites, MVWD staff filed a formal protest to the expansion bill. So in an attempt to move the bill forward, the tribe had engaged with the district to come to an agreement about the well sites.

Tribal Chairman Robert Tom, who was in attendance at Thursday’s meeting, explained to board members why the northward expansion was important to the tribe. The major flood in September of 2014 had damaged an old earthen dam, built years ago by local ranchers. The dam currently sits on BLM land and, for decades, had diverted the water from flooding the Paiute Reservation village. But it had been breached in 2015 causing a regular flooding problem for the tribe, Tom said.
“With it on federal land, we would have to go to the Army Corps of Engineers to work on fixing the breached dam,” Tom said. “Rebuilding it and setting it right again wouldn’t really take much. But no one wants to take responsibility for it.”

Tom explained that with the proposed expansion bill, that earthen dam would be included in the Reservation’s land. Thus, the tribe could repair the dam quickly and set things right again, he said.
“That is why we want to expand into that northern area,” Tom said. “It has nothing to do with the districts water rights. We have no objection to the proposed (MVWD) well sites in that area.”

According to the agreement, the two entities pledge to cooperate in the development of the proposed well sites if they are ever deemed necessary. The MVWD would be allowed to drill and develop the wells at the sites, as well as build related pipelines and other infrastructure across tribal lands to connect in with the district’s main distribution system.

In return, the MVWD agrees to withdraw its objctions to the Senate bill expanding the Reservation, and instead “affirmatively support” the legislation.
In other sections of the agreement, the Moapa Band agrees to waive its immunity as a sovereign nation. Thus any possible future dispute arising from the agreement would be subject to arbitration in Clark County, under the ultimate oversight of Clark County District Court.

Finally, the agreement has each entity agreeing to mutually respect the water rights of the other.
During the period for discussion, most board members expressed support for the agreement.
Board member Lindsey Dalley, however, was concerned about a brief clause found in a portion of the agreement. The phrase hinged a vital concept in the contract upon whether the expansion bill were to pass. The whole concept of both entities agreeing to respect each other’s water rights seemed to be dependent upon the bill’s passage, Dalley said.

Dalley emphasized that the mutual respect outlined in the agreement should not be dependent on the bill’s passage.
“Anything could happen in Congress,” Dalley said. “If somebody strips the bill down and somehow it doesn’t include the expansion northward, I want to be sure that this agreement still stands; and that it means what it says.”

Tom responded that the Moapa Band would be willing to strike the phrase from the agreement.
But MVWD attorney Byron Mills remarked that he had requested that this change be made in an earlier draft and it had been refused by the Tribe’s attorney. He suggested that Tom be given the opportunity to consult with his attorney on the matter.

Dalley made the motion that the board approve the agreement as drafted, conditioned on the removal of one word in the contract that conditioned the agreement on the tribe’s reservation expansion northward. The motion was approved unanimously by the board.
The following day, the Tribal council also approved the agreement along with the requested change.

In another agenda item, the board decided in a 4-1 vote to increase water rates by 7 percent across the board. The increase was calculated by MVWD staff to be adding approximately $4.48 to the average Moapa Valley customer’s monthly water bill.
It was the first rate increase at MVWD since January of 2011. And it had been hotly debated by board members at meetings held over the last several months.

With district revenues on a steady five year decline and operating expenses rising significantly each year, the MVWD operating budget had run a deficit and begun to draw down reserve funds earmarked for infrastructure improvements and necessary equipment purchases. Most board members thus felt that the time had come to act and increase rates to meet the operational deficit.
“I don’t know that this increase will fix the whole situation, but it will get us started on a better path,” said MVWD Board member Randy Tobler. “It gives us some time to work on the increased revenue side.

But in any case, I do think that we need to stick with the financial plan that we have had in place to continue saving for capital infrastructure needs rather than allow an operational deficit to eat that up.”
Board member Ryan Wheeler, who was the only vote against the increase, reiterated his position that the district should dip into reserves in order to delay a rate increase for 1 to 2 years. This would allow time for a comprehensive engineering study to be completed to determine the full infrastructure needs of the district’s system. Then a more comprehensive and aggressive schedule of rate increases could be imposed.
“You know my position on this,” said Wheeler preceding the vote. “I will be sticking to my guns and voting no. Given the cash we have on reserve, I don’t see that we are in a distressful situation. That is why I am not voting for this at this time.”

“We we have debated this a long time,” responded Staton, referring to long discussions at baord meetings over the past three months. “Finally, I think that we are going to have to agree to disagree on this one.”
Board members Staten, Tobler, Dalley and John Blackwell voted in favor of the increase. Wheeler voted against it.
The 7 percent increase was effectively immediately.

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