  Using the Green Bank Telescope, we have conducted a survey for 1.3 cm water
maser emission toward the nuclei of nearby active galaxies, the most sensitive
large survey for H2O masers to date. Among 145 galaxies observed, maser
emission was newly detected in eleven sources and confirmed in one other. Our
survey targeted nearby (v < 12,000 km/s, mainly type 2 AGNs north of
declination -20 degrees, and includes a few additional sources as well. We find
that more than a third of Seyfert 2 galaxies have strong maser emission, though
the detection rate declines beyond v about 5000 km/s due to sensitivity limits.
Two of the masers discovered during this survey are found in unexpected hosts:
NGC 4151 (Seyfert 1.5) and NGC 2782 (starburst). We discuss the possible
relations between the large X-ray column to NGC 4151 and a possible hidden AGN
in NGC 2782 to the detected masers. Four of the masers discovered here, NGC
591, NGC 4388, NGC 5728 and NGC 6323, have high-velocity lines symmetrically
spaced about the systemic velocity, a likely signature of molecular gas in a
nuclear accretion disk. The maser source in NGC 6323, in particular, reveals
the classic spectrum of a "disk maser" represented by three distinct groups of
Doppler components. Future single-dish and VLBI observations of these four
galaxies could provide a measurement of the distance to each galaxy, and of the
Hubble constant, independent of standard candle calibrations.
