Snake Valley Aquifer Agreement Unveiled Thursday

08.14.2009 by Elizabeth Ziegler

(KCPW News) After nearly four years of negotiations, Utah and Nevada officials have reached an agreement to split the water in the Snake Valley aquifer, though county leaders in both states remain concerned the agreement is premature. But Utah Department of Natural Resources Executive Director Mike Styler says the state now has a choice to either sign the agreement or potentially enter into decades of litigation.

“We’ve got common goals and we’ve got built in environmental protections,” Styler says. “We don’t have to do this. We can take the other way. We can have individual state aquifer management. Our agendas will go different ways. And if we do, we’ll be destined to inevitable discord.”

The draft agreement released yesterday would delay a controversial pipeline for the Las Vegas region for 10 years. It splits the water in the underground reservoir equally between the two states. But the majority of future water rights would go to Nevada, since Utah has the majority of the current users. The agreement also includes environmental protections, such as monitoring impacts to plant and animal species and whether it’s causing dust storms and reducing air quality. It establishes an interstate panel to resolve complaints, and requires the states to stop drawing down the aquifer if environmental issues arise.

But Millard County Commission Chairwoman Kathy Walker has more than a dozen reasons to oppose the new agreement. Chief among them is the timing.

“I think that the agreement is premature. I don’t see why there is a necessity for a rush,” Walker says. “If the draft agreement is released today and then the public hearings are held Monday, that doesn’t give the people enough time to read the agreement, to prepare their comments. I think that it’s a rush job.”

The first public hearings are scheduled for Monday in Delta, Utah and Baker, Nevada. On Tuesday, there will be a hearing in Salt Lake City at 10 a.m. in the Utah Department of Environmental Quality conference room. The agreement could be signed by both governors next month.