Jan. 31, 2010

The small oversight that threatens the valley’s big pipeline proposal

[Las Vegas Sun, Excerpt] From the start, Pat Mulroy’s daring strategy to tap Nevada’s rural water to quench the Las Vegas Valley seemed destined for some sort of catastrophe.

But no one thought it would stem from a lobbyist’s blunder.

...

And that setback proved pale compared with Thursday’s: The Nevada Supreme Court issued a ruling that appears to invalidate every award for her pipeline on the grounds that in 1991, the very first set of protesters was denied due process.

Mulroy, in fact, had anticipated legal concerns and, the shrewd lobbyist she is, went to the Nevada Legislature to work around a law requiring hearings to be held within one year of the closing of protests. In 2003, at the request of Water Authority lobbyists, legislators passed a law exempting projects for municipal, or town, water from that rule.

In 2006, when the state engineer’s hearings began to approve Mulroy’s applications for water in the steppingstone valleys, 17 years had passed since the original applications. The protesters were ragged. Mulroy, framed by successes, looked unstoppable in getting her water.

...

It’s unclear what will happen to Mulroy’s triumphant string of water awards from Spring, Delamar, Dry Lake and Cave valleys. That has been referred to District Court.

No one, not in the state engineer’s office or the Southern Nevada Water Authority, has quite digested the scale of the stunning turn of events that could singularly unravel Mulroy’s carefully constructed, multibillion-dollar plan to bring Great Basin water to Las Vegas.

And certainly no one expected catastrophe to spring from a wrongly worded law drafted at Mulroy’s behest.
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Read the full Las Vegas Sun article by Emily Green and Tom Gorman at the link below:

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/jan/31/small-oversight-threatens-valleys-big-pipeline-pro/