Please Help!
See White Pine County bill -- just add water for some tips on contacting the UT Congressional delegation about BARCASS 2 water study.
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Three processes are currently under way in which you can have input.
- BLM Environmental Impact Study
- Nevada State Engineer public comments
- UT-NV agreement
BLM Environmental Impact Study
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is restarting the Environmental Impact Study (EIS) for the SNWA pumping proposal. They accepted scoping comments last year but then the project was changed and other projects were proposed that would withdraw water from the same regional aquifer system. As a result, the BLM reopened scoping and will accept written comments until Tues., Oct. 17. Please make your voice heard.
Scoping helps the BLM determine what issues need to be addressed in the EIS. About 8,500 scoping comments were received in the first round of scoping (a record). Substantive changes have been made since the original scoping period last year. Changes made to the proposal since the original scoping period in 2005, include the conveyance of about 36,000 acre feet per year of water for the Lincoln County Water District, the cancellation of proposed groundwater development in the Tikaboo Valley North Basin, and shifts in alignment and location of well fields and facilities.
Additional information about the project and the report from the original scoping period held April – August 2005 is available at Nevada BLM, or by calling Penny Woods at the BLM Nevada State Office, 775-861-6466.
BLM SNWA project
Written comments may be mailed to Penny Woods, BLM, P.O. Box 12000, Reno, NV 89520-0006 or faxed to 775-861-6689.
Penny Woods, Pipeline Projects Coordinator
BLM Nevada State Office
1340 Financial Boulevard
P.O. Box 12000
Reno, Nevada 89520-0006
Fax: 775-861-6689
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Nevada State Engineer public comments
The Nevada State Engineer recently completed hearings for SNWA's water rights applications in Spring Valley, Nevada (one basin west of Snake Valley). There are interbasin flows from Spring Valley to Snake Valley. Public comments were accepted during the hearings and you still can make written comments until 5 p.m. Nov. 3, 2006. A common theme, even offered by SNWA witnesses, is that there is not enough data to know what will happen if the massive quantities of water SNWA wants to pump are allowed.
State Water Engineer Tracy Taylor
c/o Hearing Officer Susan Joseph-Taylor
Department of Water Resources
901 So. Stewart St. #2002
Carson City, NV 89701
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UT-NV agreement
Utah and Nevada have to reach an agreement about the amount of water available in Snake Valley before any water can be exported from Snake Valley,. This is because Snake Valley spans the Utah-Nevada border and water pumped from across the state line easily could have impacts in Utah. This agreement was mandated in public law 108-424 passed in November 2004.
The UT team is headed by Utah Department of Natural Resources chief Mike Styler.
In the early days of the SNWA proposal, Utah negotiators said they wanted to wait until at least BARCASS (Basin and Range Carbonate Aquifer System Study being conducted by the USGS, due in December 2007). In fact, I made a suggestion to a member of the UT negotiating team and was told to wait until after BARCASS. A few months ago word reached the UT negotiation team that Harry Reid was poised to rescind the agreement provision language in 108-424 because the process was going too slowly for SNWA's taste. This caused the UT negotiation team to put the negotiation on a fast track. Since then the Utah Legislature Interim Committee on Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Environment unanimously passed a non-binding resolution advising Governor Huntsman's administration to slow down and wait for the science necessary to make a good, solid, tough agreement. That resolution will be presented to the full legislature during its general session at the beginning of 2007. Mr. Styler recently said in a newspaper interview that his goal is the end of this year -- one year before BARCASS will be complete.
Please contact Jon Huntsman, Jr. and thank him for his continued support of Snake Valley residents and resources. Ask him to slow the negotiations while adequate scientific studies are conducted. Also, write letters to the editor to press him point to the citizens of Utah.
Governor Jon Huntsman, Jr.
Utah State Capitol Complex
East Office Building, Suite E220
PO Box 142220
Salt Lake City, Utah 84114-2220
801-538-1000
800-705-2464
Fax 801-538-1528
Lt. Governor's Fax 801-538-1557
contact: Governor Jon Huntsman, Jr. website
1 comment:
I live in Nevada and I want to thank you for your efforts to put a stop to the water grab by SNWA. I live in Lincoln County Nevada and our county is in their sites...compliments of our 'Late' County Commissioners. I attended the Rural Nevada Planning and Natural Resources Conference in October of 2007. I spoke with the Deputy State Engineer, Kelvin Hickenbottom, P.E., concerning the pipeline and the allotted water Las Vegas Valley is supposed to get. I questioned him about what if 'Joe Rancher's Well runs dry and his cattle need water. He told me, along with the other attendants, that they would help that rancher as soon as they contacted the state engineer's office. I asked him if they were going to come out and drill his well deeper and he said yes. I didn't believe that. He also said that he thought it was Impossible for anyone to pump water 24/7. Needless to say, none of us believed that statement either. He also stated that the water which has been alloted to the Las Vegas Valley is NOT TO BE USED FOR NEW DEVELOPMENT. How will they control that? How can they even make that statement in good faith? I lived in Las Vegas for almost 30 years and the development never stopped and is in fact still happening as I write this. The county commissioners of Clark County have never and will never even discuss stopping the new development. It isn't in their vocabulary. In 2004, they were discussing putting a moritorium on swiming pools. That hasn't happened yet! My concern is, once they start pumping and they are told they are drawing down the water levels of Lincoln & White Pine Counties, who is going to turn the pumps off and make sure they stay off? Las Vegas or SNWA will not turn them off voluntarily and anyone that believes they will is in denial. Their whole goal in life is to keep that valley in water and that brings me to my next question, where will they go next when all our water is gone? Please continue your fight to stop this. They need to stop growing and stop the grass watering, stop the fountains and most of all...stop putting in more golf courses. Everytime I drive by Coyote Springs, I get mad. They have been working on that development for over 3 years and all I see is water being wasted on Golf Courses. There hasn't been one home built yet! Why are we allowing these water guzzling leaches to get away with taking our water too? I'm only one person and I feel like it is a loosing battle. Our county is a poor county and our public officials have sold us down the creek so to speak. Now we have to sit back and watch our way of life be piped down to a valley of overcrowded, traffic congested, smog infested, poluting, and crime infested city that cares about nothing else but MONEY & POWER. I am not a happy Nevadian.
Patsy Dye, Caliente, Nevada
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