MARK WAITE / PVT Little Nevada subdivision landowners question a panel from the state engineer's office at the Amargosa Valley Community Center Monday. MARK WAITE / PVT Amargosa Valley residents question state officials about gaining water rights. Advertisement

AMARGOSA VALLEY -- A delegation from the state engineer's office made the trip to the Amargosa Valley Community Center Monday, in an attempt to resolve numerous complaints from property owners in the Little Nevada subdivision about lack of access to water.

The representatives of the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources suggested, to about 40 people in attendance, they get together with their neighbors, acquire water rights and sink a community well, which can serve up to 15 lots.

Others may be able to prove a chain of title to water rights dating back to creation of the subdivision in 1962.

The Little Nevada subdivision was created across Highway 373 from the Longstreet Inn and Casino, near the California state line. It was subdivided back in the early 1960s into 226 lots, but the subdivision was never completed and water rights were stripped from some of the lots and transferred elsewhere, according to the scenario outlined by the State Engineer's Office.

There are water rights now assigned to 107 lots, but property owner John Bosta claimed the water provider, TNT Enterprises, has offered to service only nine of these 107 lots.

"We can't force a utility to deliver water to a house or houses," Deputy State Engineer Jason King told the audience.

King said it would be cheaper for owners of lots stripped of their water rights, or dry lots, to get together with their neighbors, purchase water rights, file a change application with the state engineer's office for that water and drill one community well.

"It's a cost savings to only have to drill one well and serve, say, 10 homes off of it," King said.

King said his office wouldn't have a problem with property owners sinking domestic wells on half-acre lots, but the Nevada Health Department requires minimum one-acre lots for a domestic well and septic tank. People with multiple half-acre lots in the subdivision should file maps of reversion with Nye County to combine them until they are large enough to drill a domestic well, he said.

Deputy State Engineer Bob Coache introduced a caveat in state engineer's order No. 1197, issued last November, in which the state engineer's office won't issue any new water rights in the Amargosa Basin for anything other than two acre feet or water or less for residences or small commercial businesses.

The order also prohibits moving water rights closer to Devil's Hole, home of the endangered pupfish, just south of the California state line in Death Valley National Park.

"What it effectively did was it finally shut down any new water rights in Amargosa, which is pretty much what we've been doing for about 20 years," Coache said.

But Coache said everyone will now know the parameters, and the National Park Service won't file protests on water applications, which have caused some permit applications to be delayed up to four years.

Once the pending appeals of that order are resolved in court, Coache said, "The applications are filed within those rules, they won't be protested and we can act on permits within a six month period."

King said the state engineer's office won't allow water rights to be moved outside of the Little Nevada subdivision because of that order. It lies in the Amargosa Desert, which is an overappropriated basin -- meaning there are more water rights allocated than there is water available from annual recharge.

"We are not going to allow all these domestic wells to be drilled and yet have the appertinant water rights taken somewhere else in the valley. I just want to be clear on that. You're going to be able to bring up title and make yourself legal, but we're not going to allow the water rights that are in the subdivision to go anywhere else in the valley," King said.

A skeptical property owner said due to order No. 1197 it would be nearly impossible to acquire water rights for the Little Nevada subdivision.

Coache replied, "difficult, but not impossible."

Nye County Commissioner Gary Hollis, who represented his family trust, wanted to run a water line from the Amargosa Church of Christ to a half-acre lot nearby.

"I just want to make it clear that most of the people here did not make this possible. We didn't make this problem. Somebody else made this problem," Hollis said. He questioned how the landowners would partner up to provide water service to the lots and figure out how to divide up things like pumping costs.

Coache replied, "We understand that. But we put it in there as an option because there may be people that have half-acre lots that are landlocked and this is a way for them to get with their neighbor and split the cost of the drilling and be able to build on each of those lots."

Hearings Officer Tim Wilson said there is a long, sordid history of that subdivision. After numerous calls from people who can't get water asking for help, his office decided to send a delegation to Amargosa Valley.

"This is more than you could normally do in a subdivision. We are really going above and beyond all these scenarios to help everybody out. We want to get this solved. We realize this is not your fault and we really want to help you out," Wilson said.