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OBITUARIES
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NO OBITUARY NOTICES
WERE PUBLISHED IN
THIS WEEK'S EDITION
OBITUARIES FROM THE
JULY 15TH ISSUE
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02-04-2010 Tuffy Ranch Lake Valley Water Applications
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Tuffy Ranch Lake Valley Water Applications
By Dave Maxwell
The January 21 issue of The RECORD carried 28 applications for water in Lake Valley, north of Pioche, by Tuffy Ranches, owned by Coyote Springs Investment President Harvey Whittemore.
The applications state the water "will be used for irrigation purposes from January 1st to December 31st of each year." And, if permitted, "the rights will be issued entirely supplemental to the permits already issued for exportation to Coyote Springs Valley for municipal use. The duty of water, if appropriated, does not increase the committed appropriations within the Lake Valley Groundwater Basin."
Concern has been voiced by a few local residents over these applications and the reasoning for the actions by Tuffy Ranches.
In a telephone interview with The RECORD, Acting State Water Engineer Jason King, said, "In early 2008 Tuffy Ranches filed a whole series of water right applications to take the existing irrigation rights in Lake Valley and filed change applications for an interbasin transfer for municipal and domestic use, to stop the irrigation and then take that water outside of the basin for municipal in Coyote Springs." King said after a lengthy hearing on some 50 applications seeking to transfer water permitted/certificated from irrigation purposes to municipal purposes, "ruling 5918 was made to allow that transfer, but we haven't issued them yet."
The 50 applications for approximately 11 to 12,000 acre feet annually represented a little more than 20 percent of the estimated 50,000-acre feet of water a year that would eventually be needed at the Coyote Springs development. However, the water has not been transferred to Coyote Springs, because no pipeline has been built yet, and King said, "In the meantime, they would like to continue to irrigate their crops in Lake Valley like they have been. So, they filed a new set of applications," King noted, "to basically use the water there in Lake Valley for irrigation until such time as they would begin the interbasin transfer, and then they would have to start scaling back the irrigation in Lake Valley by a like amount."
King explained a provision in the statutes does allow for water in a basin, like Lake Valley, "that is fully appropriated, but under pumped. Our office can issue permits on a temporary nature, and that's what these are being filed under, that provision. So basically, because that water is not being taken out of the basin to Coyote Springs Valley, even though the basin is fully appropriated, it's not being fully pumped, because the pipeline is not there, they are not taking water out. They are filing these new appropriations to irrigate that land, to keep people working in the meantime."
He said, "If we get to where we are going to approve these new applications for irrigation, both those rights and the interbrain transfer rights will be in existence at the same time. However, the amount of water under each set of those permits are entirely supplemental to one another. We are not allowing more than just what those original permits were good for to be pumped."
At such time, Coyote Springs begins taking water out of the basin for municipal use, King said, "these permits would go away in a like amount, so that you would never be double-dipping. They are entirely supplemental to the ones that are going to be taken out of basin to municipal use. As soon as water starts leaving the basin to go to Coyote Springs Valley for municipal use, these water rights, if they are issued, are entirely supplemental to those rights, so these rights (the new ones) would have to go away as that pipeline comes on line."
King said a protest period, for any who wish to file a protest on the impact to ranching and environmental operations, or other concerns, is underway now until the middle of February, "and another 30-day protest period after that."
Protest forms are available on line at the State Water Engineers website with a $25 filing fee.
Louis Benezet, of Pioche, and Jo Anne Garrett of Baker, originally opposed the transferring the water out of Lake Valley in March, 2008, saying "The recharge to the valley is approximately 12,000 acre-feet per year and there are already 22,000 acre-feet a year permitted. This is the water he (Whittemore) intends to take out of the valley." Benezet also commented at the time, "If all of this water is transferred out of the valley and there is no additional water to be had, how are you going to develop the northern part of the county? In other words, we need this resource in the north."
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