Lt. Gov. etc. to Snake Valley

Utah Department of Natural Resources chief and head negotiator for the UT-NV agreement Mike Styler will visit Snake Valley 3/23/07. He will bring UT water rights chief Boyd Clayton and, a bonus, UT Lt. Governor Gary Herbert.

While the exact schedule has not been finalized, they will be at Dean Baker's place in Baker at 9 am (all times UT time) to take Dean's water tour. Then they will have a meeting in the Garrison area late morning or early afternoon. They will travel to West Desert School for another meeting at 3:30 pm.

We need to (1) get an update on the agreement and (2) give them an update of our expectations and what is at stake here.

Also present will be the Juab County commissioners and the Millard County Commissioners. This is the first time the Juab commissioners will have been to West Desert as a group since the commission is almost brand new following the elections. They have offered to stick around after the meeting and talk to us about the water grab. The Millard County Commissioners will be at the Garrison meeting.

Pot dissing the kettle

In a recent KCPW radio interview, SNWA's Pat Mulroy accused water grab opponents of being paranoid, fanatic, hysterics. You can hear her thoughts on that and on the Colorado River at KCPW - 1 March.

I watched one of the meetings of SNWA's integrated Water Planning Advisory Committee (IWPAC) in which Ms. Mulroy waxed hysterical about Utah stealing the recharge in Snake Valley because it originates mostly in the mountains of Nevada. (Ignoring the interstate sources of water coming into some other parts of Nevada, including the Colorado River.)

The main argument for the water grab from the southern end of the pipeline also has a hysterical quality: "We can't stop Nevada's economic engine (LV) or the state will dry up and blow away."

And when SNWA lawyers filed a motion with the NV State Engineer to disallow protests on SNWA's Spring Valley well applications because the protestants had done nothing in the 16 years of SNWA's inactivity -- that had a devious, desperate, almost hysterical ring to it.

See a transcript of the interview on Launce Rake's blog.

It's unanimous -- or at least unopposed

The Utah Legislature stepped to the plate and hit a home run. Both houses passed a joint resolution asking Governor Huntsman to wait for the best science possible before entering into an agreement with Nevada over Snake Valley water resources. The resolution also asked that a representative from Snake Valley be included on the negotiating team. Lt. Governor Herbert said the resolution helps Utah in the negotiations.

This is encouraging but much remains to be done.

Full reports can be found at Deseret News and Salt Lake Tribune.