Nevada: Utah Doesn't Hold Veto in Snake Valley

None by Lara Jones

Lincoln County Land Act Open to Interpretation

(KCPW News) Utah is negotiating ground water draw-down rights in Snake Valley, a hydrological basin that straddles the Utah-Nevada border in Millard County. Under the 2004 Lincoln County Land Act, the Beehive State must approve an agreement before Nevada can take any water - but that fact shouldn't be construed as giving Utah final approval.

"I think we always understood that there needed to be a collaboration in managing the resources in Snake Valley. The issue is the perception that exists up in Snake Valley and areas of Southern Nevada that because the way the language was drafted it would suggest that Utah by inaction has a pocket veto - and that was never, ever the intent by either state," says Pat Mulroy, general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, which is negotiating with Utah's Department of Natural Resources to pump 25,000 acre feet of water out of the Snake Valley aquifer.

Mulroy refuses to speculate about potential litigation should an agreement not materialize. "I am not going to even envision that happening because I don't think either state wants to pursue that course,"she says, adding,  "I think both states recognize that it is imperative that an agreement around that basin be entered into."

Speaking during this morning's edition of Midday Metro on KCPW, Mulroy says Utah and Nevada should reach an agreement on Snake Valley "sooner rather than later." To hear that interview in its entirety, click here.

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