Letter: Water proposal requires further study

Thursday, Dec. 1, 2005 | 7:51 a.m.

On Nov. 20 columnist Hal Rothman wrote, "Anyone with their heads screwed on straight well knows that ground water is a side issue; the real battle is over the redistribution of the Colorado River."

As a resident of western Utah, the issue is the Southern Nevada Water Authority's ground water grab, not the Colorado River. I expect to be negatively impacted by the uncontrolled growth that leads the SNWA to cast its eyes on Snake Valley.

In the High Country News story Rothman so disparages, Matt Jenkins quoted Rothman, "The only genuinely determining factor in acquiring water is cost," which, Rothman has written, "is no problem in Las Vegas."

So the history of Las Vegas as seen from outside is not much different from that of the insider's view: money -- its garish accumulation and use by the deep-pocketed. Perhaps money determines whether one's head is screwed on straight.

But the costs go beyond monetary. The SNWA is pushing for a decision in a federal environmental impact statement and with the Nevada state engineer before adequate study is completed. A U.S. Geological Survey-Desert Research Institute study (Basin and Range Carbonate Aquifer System Study) is under way, but does not evaluate the impacts of this massive water exportation proposal.

Why not wait until a second study has been funded and completed -- then we may know more about the true costs? Oh, I forgot, out-of-control development cannot be slowed that long because the monied interests need every dime they can wring out of the desert.

Is the future of the New West to be flourishing, though strangulated, metro centers surrounded by depleted basins?

Ken Hill

Wendover, Utah

The writer is a member of the Snake Valley Citizens Alliance, a group in Utah opposing the Southern Nevada Water Authority's plans to export water from their region to Las Vegas.