The dustbowl effect

Phoebe Sweet, Las Vegas Sun

Saturday, Oct. 13, 2007 | 7:15 a.m.

Sen. Harry Reid has become a champion of the environment this year, taking aim with particular vengeance at the coal industry , saying - along with many scientists and environmentalists - that continued reliance on coal will help turn the Great Basin region into a dust bowl and dry out the Colorado River.

But his environmental stewardship is being called into question by conservation groups because of his support of a pipeline to supply Las Vegas with water from the Great Basin.

In a report released Thursday to coincide with a senate hearing addressing environmental threats to the five Great Basin states, two groups attacked the plan to export water from Eastern Nevada to Las Vegas , saying it could degrade the land in the same way that climate change does.

The Southern Nevada Water Authority's project would "have devastating impacts on the rural communities and natural environments of Nevada," the report says, and "would hasten the dustbowl conditions predicted for the West."

Although the hearing raised the issue of climate change, concerns over the water project were not addressed. Not by Reid or by water authority General Manager Patricia Mulroy, who also spoke at Thursday's hearing.

Although some environmental groups asked to include the pipeline in the discussion, it was not on the agenda.

During the hearing, scientists said global warming would cause the spread of non-native plants and increase the number and intensity of wildfires in the Great Basin, which would create a dust-bowl effect. Wind-blown dust in turn would cause early snow melt in the Rocky Mountains, which would affect Las Vegas' main water supply, the Colorado River.

In response, Reid went after coal , as he has repeatedly over the past few months. "We have an obligation to protect these beautiful areas," Reid said Thursday after the hearing of the Public Lands and Forests subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources in Las Vegas.

But the report produced by the Reno-based Great Basin Water Network and Defenders of Wildlife, a national organization based in Washington D.C., says that climate change isn't the only way the Great Basin could go from a fragile but vibrant desert ecosystem to a dustbowl. Southern Nevada Water Authority's plans to pump water from Northern valleys to Las Vegas would dry out the basin, kill plants and stimulate wildfires and the growth of invasive plants , according to the report.

Reid support s the pipeline plan, which the water authority said is key to maintaining Las Vegas' water supply as drought causes shortages.

"Anything being done is being done from a scientific perspective," Reid said. "Everybody is making very certain there will be no more use of water in the future than there is right now."

He said the two issues - global warming's effects on the Great Basin and the Colorado River and the potential environmental effect of large-scale water withdrawal - are separate and unconnected.

Later, his spokesman also dismissed the study, saying it contains no new information.

"Sen. Reid trusts the scientists that any potential impacts of a pipeline will be thoroughly evaluated in the environmental assessment process," Jon Summers wrote in an e-mail Thursday.

J.C. Davis, a spokesman for the water authority, blasted the report as a "political document" and said it is "highly speculative and just doesn't have any scientific basis."

"All the things they say we should be doing to protect the resources (in the Great Basin) are already being done," Davis said. "This particular group would prefer that not a single drop of water were exported."

Environmentalists, although they praise Reid for his stance on coal and global warming, say the two issues are connected. The cumulative effects of water pumping and global warming, they say, should be considered.

Noah Matson, vice president of land conservation for Defenders of Wildlife, a sponsor of the report, said the document was based on scientific studies. "I don't think we were hyperbolic here," he said, adding that devastation from water withdrawal might not be apparent until it's too late to save the basin's plants and animals.

But Davis said extensive study of the water authority's plans to pump water have already been and continue to be done.

He said federal law protecting plant and animal life, as well as state water law, will safeguard the basin.

"The fact is, we have a primary water supply ... that's in the eighth year of a drought. The only thing we know is that it's going to get worse before it gets better," Davis said. "Our job as a regional water agency is to protect this community , and the only way to protect this community is by developing a water supply that doesn't depend on snow in the Colorado Rockies."

Susan Lynn of the Reno-based Great Basin Water Network said studies by the U.S. Geological Survey and the water authority that are being cited aren't enough to determine the effect of water withdrawal on the Great Basin.

She called for funding for additional studies to determine whether water pumping will deplete ancient aquifers and dry up wells and springs that sustain agriculture and animal and plant life in the valleys.

Reid, on Thursday, called for additional funding for programs to study and combat the effects of climate change, but not of water withdrawal.

"With all due respect to the senator, who is a strong advocate of science, he has suggested that there will be no additional ... studies on water withdrawal in Eastern Nevada," Lynn said. "The Southern Nevada Water Authority has money to do the science, but isn't that the fox guarding the henhouse?"