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‘Owens Valley is the model of what to expect’: As Las Vegas policymakers eye the water beneath Nevada, a scientific debate erupts over the possible effects

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 29, 2008 at 8:05 am

From the Las Vegas Sun:

The raw glory of the Mojave and Great Basin deserts is difficult to imagine from the paved fantasyland of Las Vegas. As the road wends north of the city, past sun-soaked bluffs into Pahranagat Valley, there is what looks like a river but are in fact four spring-fed lakes running for some 40 miles.

Audubon himself would weep at the birdlife working this watering spot on the Pacific flyway. Bald eagles ride the breezes. Herons skid across the water. Proceed across huge desert valleys and the land rises. Yucca gives way to pine, the hot desert to cold, Paiute territory to Shoshone. This is the land of nut gatherers.

Three hours into the drive north from the Las Vegas offices of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, there is no missing the entry to Spring Valley. Farms begin to dot the valley floor, alfalfa fields meld with bright green carpets of greasewood and rabbitbrush. By the time Wheeler Peak appears, the conifers rival those of the Sierra. In Spring Valley, one type of cedar is thought unique on Earth. There are bats, owls, woodpeckers, rabbits, elk, mountain lions.

Yet throughout the Great Basin Desert, the fecundity persists on the slimmest of margins.

It survives because, after spring thaw, not all of the mountain snowmelt is immediately absorbed by the desert. Rather, springs, creeks and ponds form, all held above ground by pressure from more water below. This water below is the Great Basin aquifer, a vast pool dating back to the ice age.

There could be no more enticing prospect for a desert city like Las Vegas than these millions of sleeping gallons. But if the aquifer is pumped too hard, the system of springs, streams and lakes supporting life above ground could disappear.

At issue, then, was could, and should Las Vegas attempt to get this water.

Las Vegas went about filing for water rights all over the state of Nevada, finally deciding on six key Nevada valleys.

Las Vegas managed to insert itself into this equation because under Nevada water law, only some of the Great Basin’s traditional water users are legally entitled to it. Towns are, farms are, mines are, but under increasingly antiquated definitions developed in the first half of the last century to do with “beneficial use,” most of the native flora isn’t.

Following this logic, water used by plants such as the cold desert’s signature shrub, greasewood, may be legally diverted hundreds of miles away to Las Vegas.

But by the time Las Vegas was going for greasewood’s share of Spring Valley’s water in 2006, the law of “beneficial use” was at loggerheads with a host of other modern laws protecting the environment.

Greasewood belongs to a class of plants called “phreatophytes,” named because their long roots are capable of reaching deep underground to access the water table. As Bredehoeft sees it, if Las Vegas sinks its wells and the roots of the phreatophytes continue to chase the descending water table, that means Las Vegas won’t be taking the water from the greasewood but from storage in the aquifer.

“Taking water out of storage,” he says, “is mining.” Mining ground water is illegal in Nevada. Mine enough of it and the water table can drop for hundreds of miles around. Springs stop flowing, streams disappear, plants and animals dependent on them die.

So the logic goes: Target the phreatophytes whose water you intend to take, and don’t allow them to compete for water. Pump hard. Kill them fast. Then let the system return to equilibrium so what water comes in from snowmelt equals what is taken out by Las Vegas pumps, and the water table doesn’t fall inexorably.

But this weeds-for-water logic becomes a problem when greasewood serves an important function above and beyond offering forage to deer and cattle.

Phreatophytes prevent dust storms.

Spring Valley sits at the foot of Mt. Wheeler. In 1986, then-Congressman Harry Reid led Wheeler’s transformation into Great Basin National Park, in no small part because of Spring Valley’s pristine air. Without a high water table saturating the valley floor and the long roots of phreatophytes anchoring the soil, Spring Valley could become the kind of dust bowl created by Los Angeles after William Mulholland began pumping Owens Lake in 1913.

An interesting story with a look into the tactics and thinking behind the Las Vegas pipeline plan. Read the full text of this story from the Las Vegas Sun by clicking here.

June 29, 2008 · Filed Under Las Vegas

Comments

One Response to “‘Owens Valley is the model of what to expect’: As Las Vegas policymakers eye the water beneath Nevada, a scientific debate erupts over the possible effects”

Ray Walker on June 29th, 2008 9:08 am

There is an alternative to the well fields proposed by the Southern Nevada Water Authority !

Nevada, Las Vegas, Environmental Defense and the ranchers in Spring Valley have all been offered an alternative fresh water Source of triple Nevada’s present water resources ! Development of the Source has been guaranteed not to damage the water rights of anyone, anywhere or the environment and the Source is legally available and economically feasible.

There is absolutely no interest in a simple investigation to verify this Source.

Mining of the aquifer will undoubtedly occur over time. In the last 70 years assurances were also made that well depletions would not create similar mining scenarios in the Rio Grande, South Platte and Arkansas River basins….all assurances delivered only geologic voids and greatly diminished the flow of these once magnificent ribbons of life.

It would appear that none of these entities/agencies really want a water solution….

Yes, they will create mountains of litigation paper, but not a single new drop of water for Nevada …. Such is life…. and death in the desert.

Ray Walker (Retired Water Rights Analyst)
waterrdw@yahoo.com

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