High Country News does major feature on the proposed draining of Nevada desert valleys, including Snake Valley on the NV/UT border-
For some time now I have been posting stories on the diversion of desert valley aquifers to provide more water for glitter and sprawl at Sin City. These posts are but most modestly read. Now High Country News has produced a major feature article on this growing issue.
Hopefully this will be some kind of turning point in interest on the issue.
Silenced Springs? Great Basin waters face threats big and small. By J. Madeleine Nash. High Country News.
Update Oct. 8. Snake Valley. First, do no harm. Salt Lake Tribune editorial.
Folks should also consider that this polluted dust from desert valley dewatering is not just going to blow into Utah. It will hit Idaho, Oregon and Wyoming too. Nevada has been one hell of a dangerous state to its neighbors — radioactive pollution from open air A-bomb tests, huge amounts of mercury from the open pit gold mines, and now this scheme that will make us suffer and maybe ruin our health to help Sin City grow.
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Ralph Maughan
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University with specialties in natural resource politics, public opinion, interest groups, political parties, voting and elections. Aside from academic publications, he is author or co-author of three hiking/backpacking guides, and he is past President of the Western Watersheds Project.
