Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
StumbleAs hearings begin, Water Authority claims Las Vegas pipeline would benefit rural Nevada
Monday, Sept. 26, 2011 | 2:47 p.m.
Pumping water from Eastern Nevada to Las Vegas will enrich, not destroy, the small rural communities where the water is located, an attorney for the Southern Nevada Water Authority said as hearings got under way on the proposed pipeline project.
Opening arguments were presented today on the Water Authority's application for 125,976 acre feet of water from four valleys in rural Nevada for Southern Nevada.
Six weeks have been set aside for the hearings and Hearing Officer Susan Joseph-Taylor has set Oct. 7 for the public to testify. The hearings are being shown via video conference to Las Vegas and Ely.
Paul Taggart, a lawyer for the authority, said in his opening statement that Southern Nevada needs the millions of gallons of water for its 2 million residents and 400,000 tourists. The area gets 90 percent of its water from the Colorado River and it needs protection against a drought.
Pumping the rural water to Las Vegas "will not destroy these entities" in rural Nevada but will benefit them with extra tax revenue.
But opposing lawyers argued that siphoning water out of Eastern Nevada will thwart development and damage existing water rights. Simeon Herskovits, representing the Great Basin Water Network, said the loss of this water would cause a recession in the area by halting agricultural expansion and development of alternate energy projects, tourism and recreation.
Herskovits added that the project would harm plants and wildlife, drying up wet lands and causing dust storms. In addition, the Water Authority hasn't demonstrated it has the ability to finance the project and its estimate of the available water is "grossly exaggerated."
Taggart countered that the authority has the ability to sell bonds to finance the project, which could cost as much as $15 billion.
Critics who complain the 263-mile pipeline would destroy plant life and harm wildlife don't consider that the authority would have to obey the standards set by the federal Department of Interior, Taggart said.
Joseph-Taylor has set aside three weeks for the authority to present its case, followed by a two-week recess and then three weeks for the opponents to present their case.
Also giving statements on the opening day were Paul Hejmanowski representing the Cleveland-Rogers Ranch owned by the Mormon Church and Paul Echohawk representing the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation.
Hejmanowski said the Water Authority has applied for 92,000 acre feet in Spring Valley but the estimate of the state engineer's office is there is only 80,000 feet in the valley. He said the 12 wells being proposed by the authority would interfere with the water rights of the ranch.
Echohawk said the loss of the water "will change the nature of the reservation."
Discussion: 1 comments so far…
Comments are moderated by Las Vegas Sun editors. Our goal is not to limit the discussion, but rather to elevate it. Comments should be relevant and contain no abusive language. Comments that are off-topic, vulgar, profane or include personal attacks will be removed. Full comments policy. Additionally, we now display comments from trusted commenters by default. Those wishing to become a trusted commenter need to verify their identity or sign in with Facebook Connect to tie their Facebook account to their Las Vegas Sun account. For more on this change, read our story about how it works and why we did it.
Only trusted comments are displayed on this page. Untrusted comments have expired from this story.
Post a comment
Most Popular
- Viewed
- Discussed
- E-mailed
Everything Under the Sun
Blogs
The Kats Report
Clint Holmes is a big deal at Cabaret Jazz and 'The Carlyle!'; Playboy's furry-ous closing; Elvis is a 'Legend'
Joe Pesci remembers his own honeymoon in Vegas -- meeting the Rat Pack (1 Comment)
Las Vegas Philharmonic says search for new music director to begin 'immediately' (1 Comment)
With Shenandoah project stalled, Wayne Newton hits back legally (7 Comments)
Where does a Playmate play when she turns 21? Vegas! (3 Comments)
Ice Ice Billy
The road to six-toed cats and Mayor Bubba
The Kats Report
David Itkin tells L.V. Philharmonic officials he's on his way out (14 Comments)
- Locally owned and independent since 1950; Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, best news website in the nation & DuPont Award for broadcast journalism
Weren't the same arguments made to bring water in to Los Angles? Now look at the barren dust bowl left behind there
We are from the government; we are here to help.
Like telling someone who is about to be raped to enjoy it, it will be good for them. Lake Mead is filling up, and the politicians are getting money to push the pipeline so the can get kick backs. Another HOA type scam.
As a resident of White Pine County and Clark County, I can attest, that the water supply up in "rural Nevada" is already having issues with the drought, with wells dropping levels for years now.
And SNWA wants to have you all believe the fairy tale that there is plenty of water, so much, in fact, that even if they pipeline some of it for Southern Nevada, it will NOT negatively impact the supply. WATER IS SCARCE! And this water that they purpose taking and putting billions to get, the supply is NOT SUSTAINABLE!
So talk about throwing billions of dollars to get a LIMITED supply of water is "penny wise and pound foolish," in the final analysis.
After witnessing the politics here in Nevada, how stilted laws are and the unwillingness of the LAWMAKERS to truly serve the people, it would not surprise me that SNWA gets Northern Nevada's water and further decimates this state with policies that continue to do only harm, to the natural world of this lovely state and by deceiving its people with UNsustainable water for greed's sake.
SHAME SHAME SHAME