Press release -- Hundreds Protest Las Vegas Water Grab

The following is a press release from Great Basin Water Network, leading the charge against the southern Nevada watergrab. Over 450 people and organizations either filed new protests against SNWA wells in Spring Valley (adjacent to Snake Valley) or joined GBWN's protest. Protestants comprise a diverse range of interests.

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GREAT BASIN WATER NETWORK
1755 East Plumb Lane #170
Reno, NV 89502
(775) 786-9955
http://greatbasinwaternetwork.org

April 15, 2011

News Release Contact: Susan Lynn in Nevada 1-775-786-9955
For Immediate Release Steve Erickson in Utah 1-801-554-9029

HUNDREDS PROTEST LAS VEGAS WATER GRAB

Nevadans and Utahns made it clear once again that Las Vegas won’t take water from rural Nevada without a fight. More than 200 people and organizations have filed legal protests against the controversial Southern Nevada Water Authority plan to pump and pipe groundwater from rural Cave, Dry Lake, Delamar, and Spring Valleys to Las Vegas. Another 250 protesters signed on to the Great Basin Water Network’s protests and will be represented by GBWN’s attorneys. In all, the Nevada State Engineer received more than 950 protests of SNWA’s well permit applications in the four basins.

“When ranchers, tribes, local, state, and federal governments, regional and national conservation organizations, and rural and urban residents of Nevada and Utah all come together in protest of a project, you know the project deserves to be scrapped,” said Susan Lynn, Coordinator of the Great Basin Water Network, which led the protest outreach effort. “What’s more, Great Basin National Park lies partially within Spring Valley and it would be degraded by SNWA’s proposed development. This project just doesn’t make sense environmentally, financially, or hydrologically,” Lynn said. “There is no surplus water for Las Vegas to take.”

Protestants include the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints; Nevada’s White Pine and Nye counties; California’s Inyo County; Utah’s Millard, Juab, and Salt Lake counties; the Goshute, Ely , Elko and Duckwater Shoshone Tribes; the Nevada Department of Wildlife; Nevada Farm Bureau; several Nevada towns and cities; and conservation groups including Defenders of Wildlife, Utah Audubon Council, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, and the Toiyabe Chapter of the Sierra Club. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Interior National Park Service and Fish and Wildlife Service also filed protests.

The new protests are the latest development in the complex, protracted and hotly contested battle
against the multi-billion dollar pipeline project. The protests were in response to the re-publication of water applications originally filed back in 1989. The renoticing was required by a Nevada Supreme Court ruling (Great Basin Water Network v. Taylor) that voided previous decisions by the Nevada State Engineer granting water rights to SNWA totaling 60,000 acre feet of water annually in Spring Valley and 19,000 afy in Cave, Dry Lake and Delamar Valleys.

SNWA is seeking 90,000 afy in Spring Valley and 30,000 afy in the other valleys. Protestants will have standing to argue their cases against the project in hearings before State Engineer Jason King beginning late September and concluding in mid November. A decision is expected in 2012. Applications for groundwater permits in Snake Valley, which straddles the Nevada-Utah border, will be re-published some time after King rules on the applications in these four valleys.

“Even though water applications in Snake Valley were not at issue, Utahns and their local government leaders were concerned enough about impacts on Utah to protest the Spring Valley applications,” GBWN Utah Coordinator Steve Erickson said. “Tens of thousands of acre feet of groundwater flows into Snake Valley from Spring Valley each year, so depleting the aquifer in Spring will draw down the aquifer in Snake Valley, and that’s unacceptable.”

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Snake Valley Festival

June 17-19, 2011 is Snake Valley Festival at Baker, Nevada. All proceeds go to help finance the fight against the proposed pipeline from eastern Nevada and western Utah to southern Nevada. Come join the fun. Or send contributions to the Great Basin Water Network.


Tentative Schedule
All times Pacific Daylight Savings Time

Friday, June 17
6:30 PM Ice Cream Social- Baker Community Center
7 PM Wine Tasting, T&D’s

Saturday, June 18
7:30-9:30 AM Pancake Breakfast—Baker Main Street
8 AM-12 PM Yard Sale – Baker Main Street
8 AM – 1 PM Booths – Baker Main Street
10 AM Small Town Parade—Baker Main Street
11 AM-1 PM Food Booths—Baker Main Street at T&Ds
11 AM-2:30 PM Silent auction---Baker Hall
11 AM-2 PM Kids’ Games—Baker Hall Lawn
1 PM -4 PM Entertainment---T&D’s (specific acts to be announced)
4 PM Massive water fight--Playground
6 PM Barbeque dinner---Border Inn
7:30 PM Live auction---Border Inn
8:30 PM Karaoke—Border Inn


Sunday, June 19*
7:30 AM 5K Run/Walk and 10K Run
8:30 AM Pancake Breakfast
All day: Lehman Caves Tours-Great Basin National Park (advanced reservations recommended
775-234-7331 x242)

* Sunday church services in the area:
-9 AM (NV) LDS Services in Garrison
-10 AM Baker Community Church
-12:30 PM Catholic Service, Baker

water grab heats up

Things are heating up in the water grab. The Utah Legislature's Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Committee sent a letter to the state's congressional delegation seeking support for a new $6 million study (BARCASS 2) of an aquifer that lies under Snake Valley in eastern Nevada and western Utah (http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_6514111).

That sparked an angry response by SNWA chief Pat Mulroy (http://www.lvrj.com/news/8869507.html) and a friendly editorial in the Salt Lake Tribune (http://www.sltrib.com/ci_6520486).

Mulroy imputes nefarious motives among the legislators, claiming they are stalling or want to hog Snake Valley's "excess water" for the Wasatch Front and Cedar City. She claims environmental laws prevent any repeat of Owens Valley, where dust storms are one of the biggest environmental plagues in the US. But SNWA's sibling, the Los Angeles Dept. of Water and Power, has used the courts and foot-dragging for decades to thwart and delay. SNWA has plenty of lawyers and deeeeeep pockets and could do the same thing to get around environmental laws. When negative impacts hit eastern Nevada and western Utah, I bet SNWA will want lots of long-range studies then -- while the water keeps flowing south.

Please contact the Utah congressional delegation and ask them to support BARCASS 2. A draft of BARCASS 1 was recently released but some hydrologists say it misrepresents the amount of water coming into and going out of Snake Valley. BARCASS 1 makes no attempt at evaluating the impacts of the massive SNWA scheme. BARCASS 2 would do that.

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.

public meeting on Draft Snake valley (etc) groundwater report

 
What:  Public meeting

Who:   Kimball E. Goddard, 
           Director, USGS Nevada Water Science Center

When:  1:00 p.m., Monday, March 26, 2007

Where: Auditorium
          Utah Department of Natural Resources
          1594 West North Temple

Why:

A final review of the draft Basin and Range Carbonate Aquifer System Study (BARCASS), is nearing completion. The public draft report will be ready in July 2007. The six-million dollar project is being completed in an effort to improve the understanding of groundwater in Western Utah/Eastern Nevada (Snake Valley area).

Anyone interested in the latest scientific information about water resources in the remote part of Utah/Nevada, which is now embroiled in a controversy with Southern Nevada over the export of water to the Las Vegas area, is invited to attend.

public meeting on Draft Snake valley (etc) groundwater report

 
What:  Public meeting

Who:   Kimball E. Goddard, Director, USGS Nevada Water Science Center

When:  1:00 p.m., Monday, March 26, 2007

Where: Auditorium
       Utah Department of Natural Resources
       1594 West North Temple

Why:

A final review of the draft Basin and Range Carbonate Aquifer System Study (BARCASS), is nearing completion. The public draft report will be ready in July 2007. The six-million dollar project is being completed in an effort to improve the understanding of groundwater in Western Utah/Eastern Nevada (Snake Valley area).

Anyone interested in the latest scientific information about water resources in the remote part of Utah/Nevada, which is now embroiled in a controversy with Southern Nevada over the export of water to the Las Vegas area, is invited to attend.

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.