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StumbleWater authority wraps up at pipeline hearing
Friday, Oct. 14, 2011 | 5 p.m.
CARSON CITY – A predicted or perceived water shortage in Southern Nevada will have a devastating effect not only in Las Vegas, but in the entire state, an economic analyst has testified.
Jeremy Aguero was the last of 25 witnesses presented by the Southern Nevada Water Authority over three weeks to discuss a plan that involves pumping millions of gallons a year from two rural counties to the Las Vegas area.
The hearing was before state engineer Jason King, who plans to make a ruling early next year on the application for 125,976 acre-feet a year to serve the growing needs of Southern Nevada. The hearing is now in two weeks of recess and the parties protesting the water transfer will begin their case then.
Aguero said a water limitation would have an effect on the tourism industry in Las Vegas. Without the additional water, it could put the Las Vegas area into a deeper economic recession, he said.
The next-to-last witness Friday was Richard Holmes, deputy general manager for the water authority, who testified that recreational uses in the four valleys in White Pine and Lincoln counties were limited.
Asked if the applications for water rights filed prior to the ones of the water authority should be granted, Holmes said if they were for agriculture, the public interest would be better served by giving the water to Clark County.
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Ya, Now fire the top 20 wage earners at SWNA and the people of Las Vegas will not have to pay a cent out of their pocket for the super straw.
People from all over the state and country visit the quiet and well stocked fishing and hunting areas of White Pine and Lincoln Counties, which is a part of the economic diversification of those counties. When it is economically feasible, mining also is a part of the puzzle, and then all the supportive infrastructure that feeds into in and off of it. Then there are the ranchers and the farmers. Most of you don't envision Nevada as having those industries, but they have existed for centuries and have been the backbone of a growing state.
So for SNWA Deputy Manager Holmes to state that grants for water rights agriculture, "if they were for agriculture, the public interest would be better served by giving the water to Clark County" seems to slap the very faces that have been the bread and butter of Nevada state for centuries. Making those involved in Nevada agriculture, irrelevant and unnecessary to the state's welfare and homeland security.
Maybe Deputy Manager Holmes needs to dine on casino chips and markers as an enlightened reform to his diet. Nevada agriculture provides many commodaties that citizens daily take for granted.
SHAME SHAME SHAME ON SNWA!
Bread and butter my ass!
$15 billion is a wasted investment on a water source that will stop providing water by the end of this decade. living in the desert should teach all us that mother nature ALWAYS wins.
By all means we must keep the billionaires rolling in the cash cow machine no matter what the long term expense might be. This would completely redefine 'trickle down'.