Newly-appointed State Engineer Tracy Taylor said his meeting with representatives of Pahrump's three private utility companies Thursday went "better than anyone could've expected," to get them working together on water issues.

The two-hour meeting was closed to the public. Representatives from Utilities Inc. of Central Nevada, Pahrump Utilities and Desert Utilities attended. Nye County was represented by Commissioner Butch Borasky and Cheryl Beeman, interim director of the Pahrump Regional Planning Department.

Borasky said state officials made an interesting presentation.

"It was basically to get the three water people together to work on the same page, which I probably think is going to happen. Then they gave us a pretty good presentation on how much water we really have and how we're over-appropriated," Borasky said. "It was a very positive step. There's going to be a follow-up on this."

Taylor said the goal was to get all the water purveyors working together. The meeting went really well, he said.

"I think everyone agreed that we're going to continue to meet and work together on defining the future of the basin," Taylor said. "Sometimes you have to stand back and say where is all the water coming from? How are we going to make sure there's a sustainable supply?"

Taylor added, "It's just to start working together and finding locations of wells and try to eliminate as many protests as possible between the water purveyors."

Borasky, who has carried out his campaign pledge to closely monitor the water situation in Pahrump Valley, said all his questions were answered. He said the new state engineer was very amicable.

When it comes to the water supply of Pahrump Valley, Borasky said, "You guys got to deal with this and you got to deal with this pretty soon."

The state engineer's office was a little surprised to hear the Pahrump Regional Planning District has 15,000 lots approved for development, he said.

Greg Hafen, with Pahrump Utility Co., said the meeting addressed cooperation and coordination of water systems here in the valley.

The idea of the Nye County water authority was discussed.

"I think the state agencies pretty much bought into that idea for a management tool down the road both for important and water management. Really there wasn't too much detail," Tim Hafen said.

He said the utilities were encouraged to discuss interconnecting their systems in case of a breakdown. Greg Hafen said that already exists in places like Mountain Falls.