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By Jon Klusmire
Register Staff 11-1-2007
There’s no harm in talking, even if it’s with Nevadans.
That seems to be the stance of Inyo County Board of Supervisors, which will start to open some channels of communication with two of their county counterparts across the state line in Nevada, along with a neighboring California county.
The first steps toward cross-border chit-chat will involve staff members from Inyo and San Bernardino counties sitting down with staffers from Nevada’s Clark and Nye counties, the supervisors directed.
While agreeing to those tentative steps, the board balked at trying to come up with some sort of formal Memorandum of Understanding that would bind the counties and their elected officials to a set amount of discussions or set out an agenda about what might be on the table when talks take place.
Inyo County has plenty to lose and a lot to gain by keeping abreast of what its Nevada neighbors are up to, according to Greg James, Inyo County’s special counsel for environmental law issues, and Brian Brown, owner of the China Ranch Date Farm and other holdings in and around Shoshone, and head of the Amargosa Conservancy.
The first issues, as usual, involved water.
Brown said that any increase in pumping in the Nevada side of the Amargosa Valley or the Parumph area could cause some substantial environmental damage in Southeast Inyo County. The same aquifer runs across the state line, he noted, and more pumping in Nevada could further lower that groundwater aquifer, leading to the loss of springs and seeps in Inyo County, and maybe even push the Amargosa River back underground instead of having it flow across the landscape for a nice stretch as one of the few water-filled rivers in the Mojave Desert.
Brown has been leading the effort, backed by Inyo County, to obtain a federal Wild and Scenic River designation for the Amargosa.
James noted that groundwater pumping for agriculture in the Amargosa Valley in Nevada has reached about 20,000 acre feet a year. Brown called that “an enormous amount of water,” and both men noted that there have been few studies or monitoring efforts made to identify impacts or problems associated with the pumping.
Those impacts, Brown noted, could extend to Death Valley National Park, the proposed Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Depository as well as Southeast Inyo County, which he described as “one of the last pristine areas of California.”
James pointed out that both Nye and Clark County are interested in opening talks with Inyo County because the folks on the Nevada side of the line are afraid Inyo County could dry up their towns and future projects.
The growing area in and around Parumph is already pumping more groundwater than the aquifer can sustain, said James. The pumping not only has made groundwater levels drop, but it’s also made the land drop, too. James said “subsidence” is occurring around Parumph where the ground simply gives away and creates a sink hole because the water underneath has disappeared.
The Nevada State Engineer has recognized the over-pumping problem, and is no longer approving new well permits in the area, James said.
Meanwhile, both Clark and Nye counties are suspicious of any water pumping that might take place in Inyo County.
James said Nye County and Parumph are “very worried” about the 17,000 acres of private land in Inyo County at the border, and any attempt to develop that land using groundwater. The Charleston View development, which proposed thousands of units in the desert in Inyo County near the Nevada line, was assailed by the Nevada State Engineer, who said any groundwater pumping in Inyo would constitute a water grab, and Nevada would object strenuously. The housing project never got off the ground, but James said the fears it generated in Nevada over the shared aquifer between the two states are still very real.
Likewise, the proposed Ivanpah International Airport a bit further south could also generate some problems for Clark County, home of Las Vegas and the all-powerful Southern Nevada Water District and Inyo County.
Inyo has already lodged formal objections to some water-related moves in the area, James noted. One plan Inyo objected to would have sent water from Sandy Valley to Prim, near the airport, and it was finally killed by the Nevada Supreme Court, he noted.
James warned that although the airport plans call for shipping water from Las Vegas to the new airport, Clark County and the water authority are rather aggressive when it comes to securing water, so it would be a good idea for Inyo County to be talking about the entities’ plans that might affect Inyo County.
First District Supervisor Linda Arcularius said any formal MOU or agreement would require a “huge investment in time and resources.” She also said that Inyo County needs to have such “tools” as its General Plan, an overall water management plan and other policies in place before getting to serious about government-to-government talks.
Talk is cheaper than what Arcularius had in mind, according to Fifth District Supervisor Richard Cervantes. He noted that it was “vital to know what’s going on” in the county’s Southeast corner, and holding talks with neighboring counties on the staff level “would not be a real high-cost item.” He said informal, informational meetings between staff members could yield valuable insights and information for the small cost of traveling to the meeting site.
He suggested it wouldn’t be that expensive to “have everyone meet at China Ranch, have a date shake and talk.”
When it comes to water, the same aquifer on both sides of the state line is dropping a foot a year, Cervantes said.
Besides, “there’s a lot more going on than just water,” Cervantes said. The new airport, which is planned to handle international and freight flights, “is a done deal,” he noted, and there will be impacts to Inyo County during construction and once the new facility is operating with 12,000 employees.
Development on either side of the state line in the area will impact both sides, he noted, and Inyo County needs to protect the desert’s wildlife and vegetation, and such historical highlights as the Old Spanish Trail.
Brown pointed out one example of where some information-sharing would benefit Inyo County. He said the Bureau of Land Management is preparing to “release” for sale up to 5,000 acres of land near Beatty, Nev. Inyo County would benefit from knowing about that type of maneuver, he said, and would benefit from being informed about the process and the potential pluses and minuses of development on such a large parcel of land just outside the county’s borders.
Getting back to the cost question, James said since he is also a member of the board of the Amargosa Conservancy, he would put that hat on during the inter-state talks, and not charge the county for his services.
Brown said the conservancy could help with contacting staff members from all the counties and arranging a meeting place and time.
The supervisors approved the effort to try and set up some informal talks between staff members from the four counties to determine if more talks and a more formal approach might be beneficial in the future.
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