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StumbleNLV Council fighting for monument threatened by power lines
Thursday, Sept. 2, 2010 | 2:05 a.m.
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Sun archives
- Utility’s plan clashes with vision for national monument (8-6-2010)
- NV Energy wants to build transmission line from Ely to Las Vegas (3-9-2009)
- NV Energy delays coal plant, hastens transmission line project (2-9-2009)
- Yackira remains bullish on utility's master plan (8-22-2008)
- Snell & Wilmer eager to challenge allegations (6-27-2008)
- Natural gas pains (5-30-2008)
- Renewable energy efforts gather momentum (1-4-2008)
Mammoth tusk bones are shown on top of a spring mound in the Upper Las Vegas Wash. Monument supporters envision designated areas where tourists and schoolchildren can do their own "digs" for still-buried fossils.
NV Energy has drawn a lot of heat in North Las Vegas after proposing a 260-foot swath of land rich with fossils be used for transmission lines to connect green energy plants across the state.
The North Las Vegas City Council unanimously approved a proposal Wednesday night that will allow Acting City Attorney Nicholas Vaskov and Acting City Manager Maryann Ustick to intervene before the Public Utilities Commission, which will either approve or reject NV Energy’s plan.
The item was proposed by Mayor Shari Buck at the Aug. 4 council meeting. A week earlier, Buck had traveled to Washington, D.C., where she urged congressional leaders not to include the utility corridor in any legislation.
The proposed area is so rich with fossils that it will likely become a national monument.
In August, NV Energy spokeswoman Jennifer Schuricht told the Sun that the transmission lines would be critical for delivering solar energy. The power lines are needed to connect green energy plants planned in the area from the Amargosa Valley to Carson City.
Jill DeStefano, founder of Protectors of Tule Springs, urged the mayor and council to stand firm against NV Energy’s proposal. DeStefano traveled with Buck during her trip to Washington, D.C.
“Too many people have worked too hard and too long as a team to get this monument for our city,” DeStefano said. “This city deserves this gateway for future tourism.”
Rita Ranson, representing the Sierra Club, said she was excited by the prospect of bringing people to Southern Nevada because “we have a monument unique to the world.”
“I was very, very dismayed when NV Energy came in and created a challenge to this national monument,” she said. “They did not make their concerns known until the 11th hour.”
Jane Feldman, a volunteer with the Sierra Club, said the area has environmental value, too.
“The truth of the matter is that the Upper Las Vegas Wash is still functioning as a natural hydrologic feature,” meaning it directs water into natural springs, she said. “It’s fragile soil.”
Feldman said she is worried that the power lines could disturb not only the fossils but indigenous desert plants.
But Randy Soltero, representing Sheet Metal Workers Local 88, said he is in favor of the power lines. The transmission lines are “very much needed,” he said.
He said he thought the lines could “coincide with the monument and not take anything with it. It’s like the old meeting the new.”
Buck said that after talks with NV Energy, the company is looking into other options for the power line corridor.
“They are very aggressively looking into those things,” she said. “They recognize the importance of this national monument, support it, as we do.”
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Just don't build the power line.. We really don't need it
Clinton and Obama have already inflicted us with plenty of National Feelgood Monuments. its time to stop.
So much for renewable energy as stimulus for Nevada's economy. If you can't get the power to market, you won't build the renewable installation, and if you don't build the renewable installation, you won't hire people to build it and to run it and to maintain it. And if we hold things up long enough, the project just goes away to somewhere else -- No Jobs In My Back Yard.
@BeatTheWolfPack
You've been misinformed. That area is a paleontologic goldmine. It contains fossil relics, pre-historic remnants of civilization, and original plant life found in few areas of the country. Some of the fossils in the area are quite large and currently unproteected.
I agree with Uhave2laff. These things are irreplaceable, and we should protect them. I am sure that the power company could find another site for those lines. It might cost them a little more, but perhaps they could use some of that rate hike money to pay for it. It's another example of a greedy corporate entity using scare tactics (the project and the jobs will go away if we can't do this) and the downturned economy as an excuse for ruining something that should be preserved.
Lericgoodman
The destruction of our environment and wildlife is far to high a price to pay for the handful of temporary jobs created by this power line
Best we let this one get away from us...
How much ground does a telephone pole take up .They might even find a few fossils for ya while their diggin.If there isn't jobs created soon and in great numbers,You guys can have the relics & fossils of the greater Las Vegas area all to yourselves!
YAWN