Aqua Trac, a proposed water pipeline project
to serve fast-growing Lyon County, looks
out over a landscape studded with hurdles
hostile counties, dated surveys, bureaucratic
hearings.
And that's not to mention questions about
whether the water exists at all.
The project looks to draw water from areas
around Winnemucca Lake, Granite Springs
and Kumiva valleys.Aqua Trac LLC Managing
Member Tom Gallagher says the company initially
applied for 25,000 acre-feet in Granite
Springs.Yet organizers believe the basin can
provide a far larger sustainable yield.
The water would go to Lyon County via a
56-mile-long pipeline from Granite Springs
Valley to Fernley. (Fernley, Dayton, Stagecoach,
Wadsworth and the Truckee Meadows could
be the recipients.)
Gallagher also is president of Summit
Engineering of Reno, which would work under
contract on the $140 million construction
project.
Existing U.S. Geologic Survey studies, he
says, date to the 1960s and were done via eyeballing
the basin on a drive by.Meanwhile, he
says,"The partnership has invested $3.5 million
in research and development to update
those findings."
Using satellite imagery, laser soundings
and test wells,Aqua Trac estimates reserves of
80 million to 100 million acre-feet, which
Gallagher calls "a drought reserve of nearly 500
years."
Because the right-of-way is over disturbed
ground already used for gas lines and roadways
he doesn't expect difficulties with the
environmental impact statement and says
water could flow in two to three years.
"We have letters of intent from buyers," says
Gallagher."We will not sell to speculators. It's
my intention to lower the price of water rights
significantly: $15,000 to $17,000 an acre-foot."
And to fund the project, financial institutions,
which he declined to name, are on line to
invest.Aqua Trac LLC partners are Tom
Gallagher, Michael Gallagher,Hal Furman and
Fred Gibson.
Tracy Taylor, the state's water engineer, has
the company's application under consideration.
Meanwhile, rural counties seek to preserve
the water that lies beneath in order to fuel
future growth. But counties don't own the
water rights.
The 1939 Nevada Underground Water Act
granted the Nevada Division ofWater
Resources total jurisdiction over all groundwater
in the state.
Granite Springs Basin, for instance, straddles
Churchill and Pershing Counties, and
Pershing County Commissioner Darin Bloyd
says the county filed a protest with the state
water engineer.
"Our water is dwindling at a fast rate,"
Bloyd says.
Churchill County Manager Brad Goetz says
developers are involved in "a broad, speculative
attempt to get a great deal of water permitted
in an area where there's no scientific evidence."
He cites applications for 130,000-acre-feet
of water in a basin that the USGS says has just
a small fraction of that and concludes,"They
asked for 10 to 20 times more water than is
available."
(A family of four typically uses about an
acre-foot of water a year.)
"They can't produce any data that supports
that request," says Goetz."In fact, they have
past studies by reputable scientists who say
that water isn't there.We protested to ask the
state engineer to gather scientific evidence."
The big question is whether the aquifer can
be refilled after water is pumped out.
While Aqua Trac cites studies to the contrary,
Bloyd says,"The engineering group that
did the studies is owned by Gallagher.What if
it's not and the water runs out in five years
after they've sold the rights? They could cut 'n
run."
Washoe County Department ofWater
Resources Engineering Manager Paul Orphan
says,"Existing studies don't show that much
water there."
Washoe County filed a protest against the
project, but Orphan says that's standard procedure,
in order to reserve a speaking slot when
the project goes to a hearing before the state
water engineer.
Recharge, he says, is the crux.
"It's like a bathtub," says Orphan."Just
because the water is sitting there it might
be a million years old. The recharge rate is not
proven."
But no one disputes the profit potential.
"Billions," says Goetz."Approaching $4 billion
dollars at $35,000 per acre-foot."
Fernley City Manager Gary Bacock says,
"We support their efforts but realize there are a
lot of obstacles. It would be a benefit to the city.
In the end the state engineer will determine
whether the water quantity is good."
In its application to the state,Aqua Trac
points to drainage from several mountain
ranges: Trinity,Nightinggale, Selinite, Sahwave
and the south end of Seven Troughs. The key,
says Gallagher, is that Granite Springs basin
holds 6,000 feet of sediment atop bedrock.
"That much gravel can store water equal to half
of Lake Tahoe underground."
The company used satellite imagery that
sees heat, cool and fault lineaments."It's the
first time the new science was used to determine
water in this valley," Gallagher says.
The challenge, he says,won't be proving
that the water exists, but rather building a
tricky stretch of pipeline along Interstate 80
without shutting down traffic.
But, he admits, the biggest hurdle is the
ruling by the state water engineer, expected by
late summer.
