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… while opponents are shut out of upcoming Snake Valley hearings

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 10, 2008 at 5:21 am

Along with the news of granting water to Las Vegas from the Cave, Dry Lake and Delamar Valleys, Nevada Engineer Tracy Taylor also denied “interested persons” status to several opposition groups, as well as Utah & Nevada officials in the upcoming Snake Valley hearings, as noted in this San Diego Union-Tribune article:

In a related case involving SNWA’s application to pump 16 billion gallons of water a year from Snake Valley, on the Nevada-Utah border in White Pine County, Taylor rejected bids by three Indian tribes, local government entities in Nevada and Utah and others for “interested persons” status in those proceedings.

That ruling, which restricts participation in the Snake Valley hearings scheduled to start on Tuesday, went against the Great Basin Water Network, the Wells Band Te-Moak Tribe, Ely Shoshone Tribe and Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation.

Taylor also rejected the status for Salt Lake and Utah counties in Utah, Trout Unlimited, Water Keepers, the North Snake Valley Water Association and Central Nevada Regional Water Authority, representing six Nevada counties.

The decision sparked editorials published in neighboring Utah papers, such as the Salt Lake Tribune:

Water makes life possible in the desert. If you remove a vast amount of water and take it hundreds of miles away, the loss will have far-reaching effects on arid land, plants, wildlife and the livelihoods of its human inhabitants.

This is a simple law of nature that the Southern Nevada Water Authority wants Utahns to ignore when thirsty Nevada is doing the taking. SNWA officials want us to believe that if they pump 80,000 acre-feet of water per year from an aquifer on the Nevada/Utah line and pipe it 285 miles to Las Vegas, only the Snake Valley area, home to 600 people, would be affected, and only a little bit.

That belief is either naive or grossly self-serving. In either case, Utah officials, including Gov. Jon Huntsman, have a responsibility to see it for the water grab it is and stop it before it starts.

To keep Utah from throwing sand on the project, Southern Nevada water officials successfully lobbied their state engineer to deny the “interested party” status requested by Salt Lake and Utah counties, three Native American bands, the Central Nevada Water Authority, conservation groups, businesses and residents of the valleys. This decision to exclude legitimate stakeholders is troubling.

SNWA argued that these groups should have protested in 1989 when it first applied for the project. But much has changed in 19 years, including knowledge about hydrology and drought. We now know the dangers of what then seemed to be a fairly innocuous idea that may never be implemented anyway.

The Deseret News had this to say:

Nevada’s state engineer needs to give opponents their due. They deserve to have their respective points of view heard in this matter. Aside from sorting out legal claim to this water, conservationists, the National Congress of American Indians and other interested parties have deep-seated interests in the physical, economic, cultural and spiritual well-being of this area. The key to all of these concerns is sufficient water resources.

SNWA, for its part, says its application has been mischaracterized as a water grab. Rather, a SNWA spokesman has said, the authority seeks to draw upon a resource no one is using.

Area ranchers say the underground aquifer holds in check a polluted aquifer beneath the salt desert. Any force that reduces that water pressure — such as pumping significant amounts of fresh water from the aquifer — could subject the remaining freshwater supply to contamination.

Most of those denied “interested party” status are not planning to appeal, reports the Salt Lake Tribune:

Taylor’s other ruling, which Huntley said was relatively insignificant to Las Vegas, means the Wasatch Front counties won’t be granted “interested person” status during upcoming hearings on the SNWA pipeline proposal.

Taylor’s ruling said the counties should have known they needed to protest when the pipeline permit was submitted in 1989. But Ann Ober, Salt Lake County’s Environmental Policy Coordinator, said the counties weren’t aware nearly 20 years ago of the air-quality problems they would face today under U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rules. “Not only was [our knowledge] lacking, but the EPA requirements have become much more stringent,” Ober said.

Water experts say that the 285-mile, $3.5 billion Las Vegas pipeline could cause the basin’s water table to drop far enough to kill off the vegetation that now holds the soil in place. That could cause dust storms to reach the Wasatch Front and further damage the already-degraded air quality.

The counties don’t plan to appeal Taylor’s ruling. A conservation group, however, may challenge the denial of its interested party application, said Steve Erickson, spokesman for the Great Basin Water Network. Erickson said Taylor’s ruling on the water SNWA can draw from the three Lincoln County valleys overestimates the perennial yield and recharge in the nation’s driest region.

Utah officials had this to say in this Salt Lake Weekly article:

“We’re downwind,” says Salt Lake County Councilman Jim Bradley who brought the issue to fellow council members in June. “I think there is a good chance that taking water out of the Snake Valley over there is going to have an air-quality detriment to Salt Lake County.”

Ann Ober, environmental policy coordinator for Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon, says Salt Lake Valley shares an air corridor with the Snake Valley in Utah’s west desert. “If they de-water the Snake Valley, we can expect an increase in particulate matter that will impact the valley’s air quality,” she says. In addition to participation in Nevada’s water hearings, Ober says Salt Lake County has petitioned for a seat at the table as federal officials work on an environmental impact statement for the Las Vegas pumping plan.

Salt Lake County and Utah County each are asking to bring experts to testify at the July hearings, held by the Nevada State Engineer. After the hearings the engineer will decide how much, if any, water Las Vegas gets to take from Snake Valley. The Southern Nevada Water Authority has filed on 16 billion gallons per year.

Snake Valley’s ranchers have complained for years about the plan, saying when Nevada sticks pipes on its side of the border, water will be sucked from under Utah crops. Southern Nevada Water Authority’s response has been that there is plenty of water to go around. The authority acknowledges its pumping might drop the Utah water table, but says Utah’s ranchers will just have to drill deeper wells.

That argument doesn’t hold water, says Mark Ward, an attorney with the Utah Association of Counties, which will represent Salt Lake County in the Nevada hearings. A Utah state scientist has estimated pumping in the Snake Valley could drop underground water levels by 10 feet, below the root system of the greasewood scrub brush that holds the desert floor together. “The groundwater dependant vegetation loss could be vast,” says Ward, noting that, from the 1900s to the 1970s, when Los Angeles pumped water away from surrounding ranching valleys in California, the result was the largest dust source in the world.

July 10, 2008 · Filed Under Las Vegas

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