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Las Vegas feels the fallout from the Supreme Court decision, and a profile of Pat Mulroy and her pipeline

Posted by: Maven on January 31, 2010 at 7:49 am

Stunning news on Friday for Pat Mulroy and the Southern Nevada Water Authority. This morning’s Las Vegas Sun says the pipeline is not the only answer:

” … The Nevada Supreme Court’s ruling last week that upheaved multibillion-dollar plans to tap water from rural Nevada for the Las Vegas Valley has thrown into confusion the fate of a project that was once hailed as essential to the future of Las Vegas.

The ruling jeopardizes two decades of planning to draw water from the Great Basin to sate local needs, by concluding that the applications for water rights coveted by the Southern Nevada Water Authority had long ago expired.

This doesn’t spell the death of the pipeline project. The issue now returns to District Court. And for its part, the Water Authority reacted quickly to the court’s decision by immediately refiling its applications for water rights in eastern Nevada. The agency hopes to eventually have permission to draw water south to Las Vegas via a 300-mile pipeline.

Meanwhile, the door is open for hundreds of pipeline opponents who had been excluded from the process to finally protest the plan, a prospect that seems likely to throw more obstacles in its way. … “

Read more from the Las Vegas Sun by clicking here.

Meanwhile, back at the headquarters … Journalist Emily Green traces the history of Pat Mulroy and the pipeline project in this post from Chance of Rain (an abridged version of this story is in the Las Vegas Sun today):

“Few among us will become the face of a catastrophe, but Pat Mulroy will. In 1989 the general manager of the Las Vegas Valley Water District staked her career on her ability to drive a pipeline nearly 300 miles north in order to tap the Great Basin aquifer.

Only Pat, her employees and the wishful have ever denied the ultimate cost of the water needed to fill this pipe. Rather, for the last two decades, the question has been: Where will the suffering be felt?

If Pat got the rural water, disaster would befall the Nevadan basins whose groundwater she intended to tap. If she didn’t, it would strike Las Vegas, whose irrepressible growth for much of the last two decades banked on the pipeline to refresh its dwindling supply of Colorado River water.

Until recently, smart money was on Las Vegas getting the water and five rural valleys in central, eastern Nevada getting the disaster. Look at a map and there are the target basins, little populated places lined up like long narrow flagstones leading half way to Salt Lake City: Delamar, Dry Lake, Cave, Spring and Snake valleys.

But recently the odds have swung in sudden and stunning ways against Las Vegas. … “

Continue reading at the Chance of Rain blog by clicking here.

January 31, 2010 · Filed Under Las Vegas & Nevada

Comments

One Response to “Las Vegas feels the fallout from the Supreme Court decision, and a profile of Pat Mulroy and her pipeline”

  1. WaterSource/WaterBank on January 31st, 2010 2:13 pm

    Since 2003, Ms. Mulroy and the SNWA have been offered a back-up Source of supply just in case their “best laid plans” hit a snag.

    Disclosure of an alternative non-tributary fresh water Source that would not only meet all of the needs of Las Vegas, but could also be utilized to keep Lake Mead reasonably full was offered for investigation/verification on a confidential, FREE, no obligation basis. The SNWA’s attorney contends that the SNWA could not enter into any confidential agreements even when hundreds of millions of potential savings are involved.

    It is interesting that other governmental agencies can and do enter into confidential agreements:

    January 10, 2010
    THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
    ATLANTA — Georgia, Alabama and Florida have asked a judge to keep their negotiations in the long-running regional legal fight over water rights confidential.

    The “Best Laid Plans” of the SNWA

    CAN STILL BE ACCOMPLISHED

    and without damage to the environment or the water rights of anyone, anywhere.

    In addition, the Bureau of Reclamation can utilize/accumulate an ANNUAL supply of a MILLION ACRE FEET EACH YEAR to keep Lake Mead reasonably FULL and generating the 2000 megawatts of RENEWABLE ENERGY it was designed to produce. The Bureau has commented that it would be willing to entertain the possibility of storing the non-tributary water in Lake Mead if the affected states would simply agree.

    Once stored in Lake Mead, instantaneous releases of some of the water could certainly be utilized to RESTORE the COLORADO RIVER DELTA and freshen the Salton Sea.

    California could have a WATER BANK from which to draw in the event of serious drought or a disasterous earthquake.

    The Source has been analyzed by the major power provider in the region and declared in writing to be “definitely plausible”.

    Has the SNWA’s refusal to investigate the alternative Source also been an “OVERSIGHT”?

    WaterSource
    waterrdw@yahoo.com

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