This plan to drain the desert aquifer to fuel urban sprawl at Las Vegas is getting pretty contentious-
Snake Valley water deal could kill Utahns, state’s top docs warn. Utah Medical Association presses governor to nix the accord with Nevada. By Patty Henetz. The Salt Lake Tribune.
Folks have seen the Austrialian dust storms overwhelm Sidney. Does Utah need to do this for Las Vegas?
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Past stories on the desert water draining deal.
- Snake Valley water split angers Utahns.
- Utah-Nevada water plan draws fire. The proposal would divide water from the Snake Valley aquifer equally.
- Utah and Nevada agree on Snake Valley water accord
- Proposed Utah, Nevada water accord could clear the way for Snake Valley pipeline. Water sharing » Draft calls for monitoring of groundwater withdrawals, delays pipeline decision until 2019.
- Nevada Water Authority shaken by growing push-back to their effort to drain groundwater from under the Nevada desert.
- Utah, Nevada nearing deal on Snake Valley aquifer
For keeping updated on this issue so important to Nevada and Utah wildlife and desert ecology. Great Basin Water Network.
Ralph Maughan
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He was a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and was also its President for several years. For a long time he produced Ralph Maughan's Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of "Hiking Idaho." He also wrote "Beyond the Tetons" and "Backpacking Wyoming's Teton and Washakie Wilderness." He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.
Ralph:
THIS part is quite alarming.
“Utah already is plagued with particulate soot pollution. But the UMA letter points out that dust storms out of Nevada would carry millions of tons of toxic substances, including mercury, an asbestoslike substance called erionite, radioactive particles left from 900 nuclear tests conducted in Nevada and fungus spores that cause valley fever, a potentially lethal infection spreading across the desert Southwest”.
You gotta love those radiactive particels from 900 nuclear tests.
AND they did not mention that dust exacerbates climate change/global warming effects by landing on top of snow, being dark, absorbing heat, and promoting even earlier snowmelt …
HOW many cow pathogens, anthrax spores from the sheep grazing glory days, etc. are in these desert Basins, one wonders?
Plus another thing that may not have been considered: PART of what Ely BLM in particular (which is the epicenter of the SNWA water heist) is up to is burning, Tebuthiuroning and otherwise killing pinyon and juniper so that the dastardly trees do not suck up any of that water that should be headed to the Vegas Strip. Burned watersheds will only add to the dust woes. I actually should have said burned andcow and sheep trampled and manured watersheds – as Las Vegas (SNWA – Pat Mulroy) now hold the public lands grazing permits, and are grazing the public lands with their select c’boys on the very areas they want to de-water.
kt,
Glad you are alarmed. It is hard to get folks interested in this, not just on this blog, but I imagine in Utah because it’s like where “where the hell is Snake Valley, and why does draining some water from under a desert matter?”
More on water…
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/business/energy-environment/30water.html?hpw