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The Chosen One June 8 2008
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The Chosen One June 8 2008
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Water Supply Protection
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The Chosen One June 8 2008 Las Vegas SUN. Anointed to head the valley's water district, Pat Mulroy has already reaped big rewards
State
CO
Date
6/8/2008
Author
Green, Emily
Title
The Chosen One June 8 2008
Water Supply Pro - Doc Type
News Article/Press Release
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The Chosen One - Las Vegas Sun <br />Page 4 of 10 <br />The notion of slipping ground water away from the rural counties promised an uproar. So quietly, very quietly, <br />Vegas prospectors scoured the water audit bulletins of the state engineer, sizing up just how much ground water <br />might be funneled out from beneath the rest of the Nevada to serve the Las Vegas Valley. <br />In October 1989, seven months into Mulroy's tenure as general manager, the Las Vegas Valley Water District <br />filed applications in Carson City for unclaimed ground water in 30 basins across four counties, a prospective <br />haul of roughly 840,000 acre -feet of water — reportedly half the unclaimed water in Nevada. <br />State Sen. Virgil Getto, representative of the most water -rich counties targeted by Las Vegas, was on the <br />Legislature's Natural Resources Committee at the time and says he had no inkling of the plan until <br />announcements of the filings began appearing in regional newspapers. <br />"I thought it was a dirty trick," he says. <br />Mulroy would have a long road to travel to persuade the state engineer of Nevada to award Las Vegas the rights <br />to pump even a fraction of it, but the applications meant that she had dibs on almost three times Las Vegas' <br />allotment from the Colorado River. <br />The rival water companies signed on to her plan. She had her new agency. After only three years in office, she <br />was general manager not only of the Las Vegas Valley Water District, but also of a new regional <br />supercooperative that comprised all seven water companies serving the then - 835,000 residents of Clark County. <br />Once she had formed the Southern Nevada Water Authority in 1991, Mulroy wanted it to have a seat at the <br />negotiating table with the six other states vying for water from the Colorado River. That job then lay with <br />Nevada's Colorado River Commission, a gubernatorial body that acted as water wholesaler to Las Vegas. <br />Mulroy wanted her own appointees on it, people who understood the nitty-gritty of the water business, not grace <br />and favor appointees by the governor. <br />She was sitting with Bunker in a Carson City restaurant when she mapped out a scheme to stud the governor's <br />commission with members of her staff. <br />In a bit of lobbying so successful that it surprised even Bunker, he got the idea past both the governor and the <br />Legislature. As pure icing, by 1993 Bunker was on the river commission and by 1997, he was chairman of it. <br />The upshot: Northern Nevadans in Carson City might have settled for the smallest allocation from the Colorado <br />River without any Southern Nevadans at the table in the 1920s. <br />That wouldn't happen again. <br />Every triumph has a price tag. Assuming control over the local water districts of greater Las Vegas meant taking <br />on their collective commitments to provide water to builders. "We were issuing `Will Serve' letters left and <br />right because we believed the myth we had all the water we'd ever need," Mulroy says. And then one day, "we <br />were sitting with our attorneys and saying, `We could have a problem."' <br />Valentine's Day 1991 was the day she refused to issue any more automatic "Will Serve" letters to developers. <br />Her message: "Just because you own a piece of dirt doesn't mean you have any water to go with it." <br />From then on, they would have to commit to a project without a guarantee of water. <br />Logical policymakers might have controlled growth: 1991 was the year that poll after poll began showing <br />residents in favor of slower, planned development. <br />History might read differently if Clark County residents voted as they polled and if a quarter or more of them <br />weren't transient. <br />http: / /www.lasvegassun.com /news /2008 /jun/08 /chosen -one/ 6/17/2008 <br />
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