Hoover Dam never had ability to solve all Colorado River conflicts
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 22, 2010 at 7:23 amFrom the Arizona Republic, this commentary by Michael Hiltzik:
“The most striking sight greeting visitors to the Colorado River gorge known as Black Canyon used to be the great wedge of alabaster concrete spanning the canyon wall to wall. But in recent years, Hoover Dam, that enduring symbol of mankind’s ingenuity, has been upstaged by another sight signifying nature’s power to resist even the most determined effort to bring it under control: a broad white band stretching along the edge of Lake Mead like a bathtub ring, marking how far the reservoir has fallen below its maximum level.
The nearly decade-long drought in the Colorado River Basin, which has lowered Lake Mead by about 120 feet from its high-water mark, reminds us that the promises made for Hoover Dam were always unrealistic. … “
Continue reading Michael Hiltzik’s commentary at the Arizona Republic by clicking here.
More dust stirred up over Las Vegas water pipeline
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 20, 2010 at 7:57 am
From the Deseret News:
“Arguing it is a matter of fairness and “judicial economy,” opponents of a Nevada water authority’s Las Vegas Pipeline are asking a district judge to revisit the instructions handed down to a state water engineer regarding water rights applications.
In a motion before the Nevada 7th District Court, the Great Basin Water Network said the “scope and implementation” of an earlier Nevada Supreme Court decision needs to be re-examined, especially in light of “significant disagreement” over how far that ruling extends. … “
Continue reading from the Deseret News by clicking here.
MORE INFO:
- State reconsidering request to pump water from upstate, from the Las Vegas Sun
- Vegas pipeline hearing timeline sketched, from the Chance of Rain blog
- Website created for upcoming water right hearings, from the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources
Photo of Las Vegas by flickr photographer Christopher Chan.
Construction on Hoover Dam bypass bridge quickly coming to a close
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 20, 2010 at 7:51 amFrom the Las Vegas Sun:
“The Hoover Dam bypass bridge — a second major engineering feat along this stretch of the Colorado River — will open to foot traffic before cars and trucks begin to rumble across it in November, officials announced Thursday.
The one-day event will be held Oct. 16, less than a month before the Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge opens to vehicle traffic. Construction is quickly coming to a close, officials said. … “
Continue reading from the Las Vegas Sun by clicking here. Be sure to check out the slideshow!
Salt Lake Tribune editorial: Shrinking Mead – Powell’s sister reservoir drying up
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 17, 2010 at 8:04 amFrom the Salt Lake Tribune, this editorial:
“Some marinas at Lake Mead are high and dry; new roads now meander on dry ground that used to be far under water. The huge reservoir is shrinking.
You remember Nevada’s Lake Mead; it’s a sister reservoir on the Colorado River to Lake Powell, the gigantic water-storage basin in southeastern Utah. Together, the two provide water storage for several Western states, including Utah.
The bad news for the lower-basin states at the bottom of the water-allocation totem pole — Nevada and Arizona — is that Lake Mead has hit the lowest level since 1956, and there’s no end in sight. … “
Continue reading this editorial from the Salt Lake Tribune by clicking here.
MORE INFO: New York Times Green Inc. blog: Levels Plummet in Crucial Reservoir
Patricia Mulroy: “Perseverance key to our future”
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 14, 2010 at 6:09 amFrom the Las Vegas Sun, this commentary by Patricia Mulroy:
“The great American patriot Samuel Adams once said that “the necessity of these times, more than ever, calls for our utmost circumspection, deliberation, fortitude and perseverance.”
Adams was speaking of the coming American Revolution, but the same could be said of the daunting challenges facing our community. From the perspective of a water agency, these challenges have been of historic proportion.
Never in recent history has an 11-year drought so ravaged the desert Southwest as the one we are experiencing. Lake Mead, which provides 90 percent of this community’s water, is at record low levels, and one more bad winter in the Rocky Mountains could throw us into shortage conditions on the Colorado River. … “
Continue reading from the Las Vegas Sun by clicking here.
Lake Mead’s water level plunges as 11-year drought lingers
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 13, 2010 at 7:21 am
From the New York Times:
“Lake Mead, the enormous reservoir of Colorado River water that hydrates Arizona, Nevada, California and northern Mexico, is receding to a level not seen since it was first being filled in the 1930s, stoking existential fears about water supply in the parched Southwest.
Heightening those concerns are recent signs that the region’s record-breaking, 11-year drought could wear on for another year or longer. July not only saw the lake drop to 1956 levels but also brought cooling temperatures in the Pacific Ocean that signaled a developing La Niña system, historically a harbinger of more hot and dry weather. … “
Continue reading from the New York Times by clicking here.
MORE INFO:
- River Beat: “We know that it’s being drained.”, from John Fleck at the Inkstain blog: “My on-again, off-again infatuation with 1083.57, the elevation Lake Mead reached in March 1956, is back on. … “
- Lake Mead 1983: Photos tell wet story, from Waterblogged – a photo gallery of pictures of Lake Mead when the lake was at it’s highest level ever.
Photo of intakes at Hoover Dam by flickr photographer Ice Sabre. Photo taken July 1, 2010.
Southern Nevada: Bottom feeders muscling other species out of way; Invasive carp not content to just swim in the mud; they’re destroying other fish habitats
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 7, 2010 at 6:51 amFrom the Las Vegas Sun:
“In the depths of Nevada’s streams and reservoirs lies a voracious bully of a fish bent on becoming king of the bottom feeders.
Carp — ugly brown fish from Europe and Asia that can grow to more than three feet long and 35 pounds in Nevada waters — are eating most of the food and damaging the nesting habitat for native fish and birds in waters across the state. By some estimates, tens of thousands of this invasive species have made Nevada home.
State and federal wildlife managers want to bring that number to zero, and this summer they’re asking the public for help. … “
And how are they going to do that?
” … Rather than pay staff to fish all day, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Nevada Wildlife Division will host a party — a Carp Rodeo, in fact — at the Upper Pahranagat Lake campground July 17. Inexperienced anglers are encouraged to make the hour-and-a-half drive from Las Vegas to the campground, where staff can supply reel and tackle if needed and offer basic fishing lessons. … “
Read more from the Las Vegas Sun by clicking here.
Water source discovered near Death Valley; Thousands of gallons gush from desert floor, but journey takes 15,000 years
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 10, 2010 at 6:14 am
Found this one on the Sisweb. From MSNBC:
“About 10,000 gallons of water per minute gush up from the desert floor at an oasis near Death Valley, Nevada, but only after the water completes a slow 15,000-year underground journey, a new study suggests.
Until now, scientists were puzzled over the source of water for the oasis called Ash Meadows in Nevada. The new research suggests the water flows from the north to the south through an underground crack in the Earth’s crust known as the Gravity Fault, which acts as a guide for the water. That conduit connects the Nevada Test Site with Ash Meadows, which is located about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
“Since the crust in Western states is being pulled apart east to west, it creates north-south fault lines such as this one that guides groundwater from one geographically closed basin to another,” said Stephen Nelson, a geologist at Brigham Young University in Utah.
That underground connection with the Nevada Test Site could spell trouble for the desert paradise in the future, because of radioactive water contaminated by nuclear testing. But the radionuclide-laden waters likely won’t reach the oasis for thousands of years. … “
Continue reading from MSNBC by clicking here.
Photo of Ash Meadows by flickr photographer OutdoorPDK.
Southern Nevada Water Authority eyes power for pipeline plan
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 31, 2010 at 7:15 amFrom the Las Vegas Sun:
“Southern Nevada Water Authority is on the verge of getting into the geothermal power business.
The water agency on May 11 purchased a lease on 4,473 acres south of Ely from the Bureau of Land Management for about $9,000. The agency hopes to build a geothermal energy plant there to power pumps for a planned groundwater pipeline that would siphon off up to 170,000 acre-feet of water from springs in Eastern Nevada for use in Las Vegas and the Coyote Springs development.
Moving all that water will take a huge amount of electricity, something the agency doesn’t have.
Owning power plants is nothing new to the Water Authority. It is the biggest electricity user in the area and owns most of its generators. … “
Continue reading from the Las Vegas Sun by clicking here.
Hoover Dam contracts for low-water hydroelectric turbine
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 19, 2010 at 6:10 am
From Power Magazine:
“Growing water demand and reduced runoff due to drought has depleted waters feeding many hydroelectric power plants around the world—sometimes causing severe power shortages, such as in Brazil and New Zealand. The 2,080-MW Hoover Dam, a facility that generates power for more than a million people in Arizona, Nevada, and Southern California, is not immune to this phenomenon. According to a recent study by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the Colorado River system, which includes Lake Powell and Lake Mead (both manmade reservoirs), is suffering a net deficit of nearly one million acre-feet of water per year.
The study estimated a 50% chance that levels at Lake Mead, already showing a deficit, could drop too low for power production. Additionally, the Scripps researchers predicted that there is a 50% chance that by 2021, Lake Mead could run dry if water demand is not curbed and climate changes continue as expected. … “
Continue reading from Power Magazine by clicking here.
Column: Utah’s water plans could leave us dry if nature balks
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 13, 2010 at 7:36 amFrom the Salt Lake Tribune, this column by Tom Wharton:
“The water projects affecting Utah and the Colorado River Basin and the price tags to build them keep piling up.
Washington, Iron and Kane counties want to spend $1 billion on a pipeline to bring 100,000 acre-feet of water from Lake Powell to southwestern Utah.
Kane County hopes to then join San Juan County in selling off 50,000 acre-feet of water rights to facilitate a nuclear power plant near Green River, Utah. That’s as much as East Canyon Reservoir holds. In an average year, the power plant would reduce river flows by 2 percent. That could increase to up to 10 percent in a drought.
Colorado entrepreneur Aaron Million seeks to build a 400-mile, $3 billion pipeline from points on the Green River above and below Flaming Gorge Reservoir to transfer 250,000 acre-feet of water to fuel growth in the Denver area. … “
Continue reading this column from the Salt Lake Tribune by clicking here.
Snake Valley water roulette
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 12, 2010 at 7:47 am
From the Farm Journal:
“In Snake Valley, you’re about as far from big-city life as it’s possible to get in the lower 48. The more-than-100-mile-long valley straddles the Nevada-Utah state line 250 miles north of Las Vegas. Yet, for more than 20 years now, farmers and ranchers in this arid region have been in a rural versus urban tug-of-war.
The prize? Abundant groundwater under a valley where it rains 5″ a year. Las Vegas wants it. The farmers and ranchers don’t want to give it up. After all this time, no one knows how things will turn out—but at the moment, the rural forces seem to have the upper hand.
Snake Valley is one of many regions struggling with water-related issues. This story continues our coverage of how water is leaving its mark for producers across the U.S.
In late January, the Nevada Supreme Court ruled that applications for water rights filed by the predecessor of the current-day Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) are no longer valid because too much time has passed since the original protest period. Protests to the plan were supposed to be heard within a year of filing the applications. But they have dragged on to the present day, and even though land changed hands, SNWA allowed only original landowners to testify. The court ruled that was wrong.
The ruling does not end the Las Vegas water grab threat, however. … “
Continue reading this article from the Farm Journal by clicking here.
Desert Research Institute seeking money to continue cloud seeding in Nevada
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 10, 2010 at 7:54 amFrom the Reno Gazette-Journal:
“Nevada’s cloud-seeding program, almost killed by the state budget crisis, produced nearly 13 billion gallons of extra water over six months ending in late April, experts said.
“That’s nothing to sneeze at,” said Sparks Councilman Mike Carrigan, who chairs two water commissions that voted to provide money to keep the cloud-seeding program alive last winter.
Now, officials at the Desert Research Institute hope to convince providers that the program squeezes enough extra moisture out of winter storms to justify the expense of about $1 million per year.
The cloud-seeding program was in big trouble after the 2009 Legislature, facing a record budget deficit, dropped state funding for DRI’s efforts. Last summer, DRI went so far as to dismantle its five cloud-seeding generators in the Lake Tahoe area. … “
Continue reading this article from the Reno Gazette-Journal by clicking here.
Las Vegas: Water authority salaries
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 7, 2010 at 5:49 amEver wonder how much Pat Mulroy earns? Apparently, so did Channel 8 Las Vegas:
“Environmentalists like Launce Rake have griped for years about the Southern Nevada Water Authority’s seemingly bottomless wallet, especially in connection with the proposed rural pipeline project. “We beat up on the firefighters and police officers and teachers for making too much money, and here we have this agency that apparently has an unlimited budget for hiring folks to basically facilitate the water grab.”
The pipeline project could easily cost $5 billion to $10 billion. Tens of millions of dollars have also been spent on a string of failing ranches, fat consulting contracts for lawyers, public relations firms, media ads, lobbyists, not to mention millions more for a celebrity chef. Elected officials, for the most part, tread lightly when discussing the politically powerful SNWA.
“There are some big numbers over there,” said Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak. “The same thing has happened with water that has happened with fire.” Commissioner Sisolak has not only taken on firefighter salaries, but has dared to question water agency spending, which he characterizes as out of control. That includes salaries. “That simply cannot be allowed to continue. When you talk about the water salaries, those are paid when you turn on your tap to turn water on, and do your dishes, and water your lawn. That is ultimately where the revenue comes from to pay those salaries,” Sisolak said. … “
Continue reading this article from Channel 8 by clicking here.
Chance of Rain blog: Kay sera sera
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 5, 2010 at 6:22 am
From Emily Green at the Chance of Rain blog:
“Kay Brothers, pictured in the photo left, retires this week as Deputy General Manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority. There will probably be parties and there should be toasts, during which she may be heralded as a force in developing groundwater storage programs for the Las Vegas Valley Water District in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Even her worst critics would have to raise a glass. The kind of storage of Colorado River water undertaken by Brothers and Terry Katzer, the man who hired her in 1986 at the SNWA seed agency, was a model of progressive water management in a desert where evaporation empties reservoirs with sparkling remorselessness — and in a valley where subsidence is measured in feet, not inches.
However, it is unlikely that she will be remembered for that. … “
Continue reading this post from the Chance of Rain blog by clicking here.
Additional commentary from the Water Wired blog by clicking here.
More than 1,600 file protests over plan to tap Snake Valley aquifer
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 4, 2010 at 5:33 amFrom Deseret News:
“The protests are piling up over a plan that proposes to tap water from an aquifer in Snake Valley that straddles the border of Utah and Nevada.
An announcement by the Great Basin Water Network said more than 1,600 protests have been filed as a result of the Southern Nevada Water Authority’s application for water rights to 130 wells.
“This outpouring of protests from such a large number and broad range of organizations and individuals shows just how united and strong the opposition to this misguided project has become,” said Susan Lynn, coordinator of the network, which led the outreach effort to garner protests. … “
Continue reading this article from the Deseret News by clicking here.
Nevada Gov. waiting to see if state Supreme Court reconsiders ruling on water rights
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 28, 2010 at 6:38 amFrom the Las Vegas Sun:
“Gov. Jim Gibbons is going to wait before deciding what action to take to see if the Nevada Supreme Court reconsiders a ruling involving pumping 40,000 acre feet of water from eastern Nevada to Las Vegas.
Allen Biaggi, director of the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, said the governor has directed the agency to wait for action from the Supreme Court.
The court’s decision would impact 14,500 approved water rights or pending water rights applications. Both the Southern Nevada Water Authority, which applied to pump the water from eastern Nevada, and the state are asking the Supreme Court to reconsider its ruling.
Advocates for homebuilders, organized labor and the water authority have previously said the Legislature should be called into special session to clarify confusion caused by the state Supreme Court ruling. … “
Continue reading this article from the Las Vegas Sun by clicking here.
Federal government may recoup interest from irrigation district in water?
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 28, 2010 at 6:31 amFrom Somach Simmons & Dunn:
“On April 20, 2010, in a potentially groundbreaking case, the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion addressing a novel issue: whether an irrigation district that violated its decreed water rights provisions can be required to pay interest in the form of more water rather than money. (U.S. v. Bell (9th Cir., April 20, 2010, No. 05-16154, D.Nev. No. CV‑95‑00757-HDM) 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 8148.)
Background
Like many watersheds in the western United States, the Truckee River has been the focus of legal wrangling since 1917. The present case goes back to 1967 when the Secretary of Interior, as part of the national environmental movement, imposed operating criteria and procedures (OCAPs) limiting diversions from the Truckee and Carson Rivers to restore fish in Pyramid Lake north of Reno. The OCAPs primarily affected the Truckee Carson Irrigation District (TCID), which operates the federal Newlands Project under a contract with the Bureau of Reclamation and has decreed water rights. After several rounds of litigation over thirty years involving the OCAPs, the federal District Court in 2003 issued a decision holding that TCID had willfully failed to comply with the OCAPs. … “
More background, conclusions and implications from Somach Simmons & Dunn by clicking here.
Drying up: Nevada’s Mulroy makes a point
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 27, 2010 at 6:06 amFrom the Salt Lake Tribune, this editorial:
“Nobody would ever call Pat Mulroy diplomatic. The executive director of the Southern Nevada Water Authority can be abrasive and confrontational, and her recent comments about Nevada and Utah water resources were true to form.
She told a Las Vegas television audience that Utah is a backwater, where people are water gluttons and not very bright into the bargain. And she offered Utah an alternative to letting the SNWA siphon water from an aquifer beneath the Snake Valley, which straddles the Utah-Nevada state line: Give Nevada some of Utah’s share of Colorado River water whenever Lake Mead runs dry.
Of course, it’s all nonsense. Mulroy knows Utah can’t revise the seven-state Colorado River Compact, which divvies up Colorado River water. And Nevada’s claim on Snake Valley water is in doubt. The Nevada Supreme Court has invalidated all the rights to Nevada groundwater the SNWA had claimed north of Las Vegas to fill a $2 billion pipeline to Sin City. That ruling also puts the Snake Valley proposal in limbo. Mulroy’s threatened “deal” is mostly a meaningless rant.
But the dire image she conjures of a Las Vegas without water for its swimming pools, or, indeed, for the homes of its new subdivisions is a very real possibility. And it could be the future of other Western growth centers — St. George, Cedar City, Phoenix and Los Angeles — as well. … “
Continue reading this editorial from the Salt Lake Tribune by clicking here.
Official: Water deal critical – Mulroy says debate needed before crisis turns discussion ‘crazy’
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 26, 2010 at 6:29 amFrom the Salt Lake Tribune:
“A top Nevada water chief made a splash during a recent Las Vegas television interview, trash-talking Salt Lake City for being too bucolic, its residents for not being able to spell conservation and Utah Gov. Gary Herbert for not signing a contentious Snake Valley water-sharing agreement.
Then Pat Mulroy, executive director of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, dropped a bomb: She offered to keep a 285-mile, $3 billion Las Vegas pipeline away from Snake Valley’s aquifer if Utah would just give up some of the Colorado River water the Beehive State is promised under federal law.
“If the state of Utah wanted us out of Snake Valley, they could accomplish it tomorrow,” Mulroy said during the KCVB interview. “All they need to do is agree that when … we get into critical [Lake Mead shortages], they will absorb that portion of Nevada’s shortage that would have been replaced by Snake Valley resources.”
But as federal and state water authorities point out, the statement is untrue and, in fact, the proposal would be illegal. … “
Continue reading this article from the Salt Lake Tribune by clicking here.
April storms in the Sierra good news for Truckee Meadows summer water supply
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 24, 2010 at 7:07 amFrom the Reno Gazette-Journal:
“Continuing April storms have helped maintain the mountain snowpack and bolstered the region’s water supplies for summer.
On April 1, which federal hydrologists typically consider the end of the snow season, the Tahoe-Truckee snowpack was about 90 percent of average, the fourth straight subpar winter. But subsequent storms boosted the snowpack to normal or above normal levels for the first time since the 2005-06 winter.
“All year, we were lagging. Then we had that jump,” said Gary Barbato, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Reno. “The snowpack is average.”
Since April 1, more than 2.5 feet of snow fell in Tahoe City. Wednesday night’s snowstorm dropped up to 8 inches of snow in Incline Village. There’s probably more coming. … “
Continue reading this article from the Reno Gazette-Journal by clicking here.
Center for Bio Diversity: Protection for Nevada species sought through protest of water-rights applications
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 23, 2010 at 6:34 amFrom the Center for Biological Diversity:
“The Center for Biological Diversity this month submitted 130 protests of water-rights applications filed by the Southern Nevada Water Authority, the Lincoln County Water District, and the Virgin River Water District that pose a threat to numerous rare and sensitive species in Nevada. The water-rights applications were filed in eastern Nevada and, if approved, would allow the pumping of groundwater for mostly municipal uses away from the area of the pumping.
“The biggest threat to the diversity and abundance of Nevada native wildlife species, and the livelihood of rural communities in the affected areas, is the export of non-renewable ancient groundwater to fuel the unsustainable growth of far-away cities such as Las Vegas and Mesquite, and if built, Coyote Springs”, said Rob Mrowka, ecologist with the Center. “To speak out in defense of the species and rural communities, the Center has filed 130 protests of the water-rights applications in White Pine, Lincoln, Nye, and Clark counties.” … “
Continue reading this article from the Center for Biological Diversity by clicking here.
Barry Nelson: Dateline Las Vegas – Hell has frozen over
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 22, 2010 at 8:08 amFrom Barry Nelson at the NRDC Switchboard blog:
“If Hell is going to freeze over, you don’t expect it to happen in Las Vegas. Here’s a story from the Las Vegas Sun reporting that something extraordinary happened when the Sonoran Institute released a report asserting that there is simply not enough water available to serve Las Vegas if it’s growth boom starts again and it “builds out” to its maximum boundaries. Some local officials agreed.
Las Vegas has been one of the nation’s fastest growing cities over the past decade. In the wake of the nation’s financial crisis, it is now one of the communities most plagued by vacancies, foreclosures and under-water mortgages. According to the Sonoran Institute, the rampant growth of the past decade is neither economically or environmentally sustainable. So far, this is not a surprise – environmentalists don’t tend to embrace runaway growth. But, here’s where the story gets interesting. Clark County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani offered the following comments expressing openness to the report’s findings:
“I don’t think there’s much resistance to at least having the conversation about what’s the next step for the recovery of the valley,” she says. “Now we should be stepping back and asking, ‘Is that what we want? Is it a product that’s going to attract people here and keep people here?’ Now we can ask, ‘What do we want the valley to look like?’ We didn’t have time before because of the growth boom.” … “
Continue reading this post from the Las Vegas Sun by clicking here.
Appeals court upholds more water ruling for tribe
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 22, 2010 at 8:05 amFrom the Las Vegas Sun:
“A federal appeals court has upheld most of a ruling that ordered a rural Nevada irrigation district to pay back billions of gallons of water that it took from a tribe decades ago.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday directed a federal judge in Reno to go back and determine how much more water the Pyramid Lake Paiutes are entitled to as a result of the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District illegally diverting flows for its own farmers and ranchers in northern Nevada’s high desert during the 1970s and 1980s. … “
Continue reading this article from the Las Vegas Sun by clicking here.
Nevada water: Appeals Court questions ruling ordering interest payable in water
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 21, 2010 at 7:57 amFrom the Lahontan Valley News:
“The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Tuesday issued an opinion questioning a district court order in the Truckee water case that interest be paid in the form of additional water to Pyramid Lake instead of money.
It remanded the latest case in the nearly 100-year-old Truckee/Carson water battle back to district court asking for a full explanation of that ruling but didn’t reject the concept entirely.
“The novel issue in this appeal concerns the (district) court’s acceptance of the concept of interest payable in water,” the opinion states. “The judgment orders the return of water, not money, so the district court ordered interest to be paid in water.”
The core of the case centers on tribal and federal claims that, for years, the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District took more water for Fallon area farmers from 1974 through 1979 than permitted by the law and numerous court cases involving Truckee River water. … “
Continue reading this article from the Lahontan Valley News by clicking here.
Hoover Dam turbines set for upgrade to cope with drought
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 20, 2010 at 6:10 am
From BrighterEnergy.org:
“The US Bureau of Reclamation has awarded a $3.4 million contract to Andritz Hydro Corporation to upgrade generating facilities at the Hoover Dam.
Andritz Hydro, which is based in Charlotte, North Carolina, will design and manufacture a new “wide head” turbine runner for the Number Eight generating unit at the power plant on the Nevada side of the Colorado River.
The turbine runner is the water wheel portion of the generating unit, turned by the flowing water to drive the generator.
Andritz Hydro will provide systems to allow the generators to provide power more smoothly and efficiently when water in Lake Mead is at lower levels because of the current drought in the region. … “
Continue reading this article from BrighterEnergy.org by clicking here.
Las Vegas can’t handle another era of unimpeded growth, study says
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 12, 2010 at 6:06 amFrom the Las Vegas Sun:
“Environmentalists and Southern Nevada’s water chief Pat Mulroy finally agree on at least one point.
A report by the Sonoran Institute, an Arizona-based nonprofit think tank, says that if the Las Vegas Valley’s population grows to capacity using the Bureau of Land Management acreage designated for development, even the most stringent water conservation measures won’t be enough to ensure that everyone has enough H2O. Filling in the remaining 27,000 acres using today’s zoning and planning rules would allow about a half-million more people to call the valley home.
The one big problem: There’s not enough water for all of them.
The Sonoran Institute says that would remain true even if the valley adopted measures such as banning residential lawns and requiring low-flow fixtures indoors. In other words, as Mulroy is fond of saying: We can’t conserve our way out of our water problem.
But Mulroy and the institute report, which was funded by the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada and the Toiyabe chapter of the Sierra Club, part ways on what the answer is. … “
Continue reading this article from the Las Vegas Sun by clicking here.
Western Weather Blog: Dour forecast for Las Vegas water: Truth or hyper speculation?
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 10, 2010 at 5:37 amFrom the Accu-Weather Western Weather Blog:
“An article appeared online yesterday from Yahoo News titled Endangered Vacations. One of these endangered vacations mentioned was Las Vegas. Even in the article it says that the prediction of the demise of this vacation destination might be a little overly apocalyptic. But it does site the fact that according to one study the cities drinking water could go dry by 2021.
The vast majority of Las Vegas drinking water comes from Lake Mead. In recent years Lake Mead’s water levels have been dropping. Las Vegas had been undergoing rapid growth up until the recent recession. This had put a strain on the water supplies due to the increase in population thirsting for water in one of the driest areas in the United States. That, combined with 4 years of excessive drought, has worried some about how long the water would hold out.
The one study the Yahoo article cited appeared on the website thedailygreen.com back on July 23, 2009. … “
Continue reading this post at the Western Weather Blog by clicking here.
Sides gear up for new fight against Snake Valley pipeline
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 9, 2010 at 5:53 amFrom the Salt Lake Tribune:
“Ranchers, county governments, conservation groups and the Goshute tribe are crafting protests against a Nevada water utility’s new applications to pump Snake Valley water to Las Vegas, a conservation group said.
The Great Basin Water Network, a coalition of groups in Utah and Nevada, has scheduled workshops to teach others how to protest, too.
The protest periods for more than 130 applications to drill wells, including nine in Snake Valley, end April 16 and April 30. Protests are allowed because a January ruling from the Nevada Supreme Court struck down a top Silver State water official’s approval of rights the Southern Nevada Water Authority secured two decades ago. … “
Read more from the Salt Lake Tribune by clicking here.
Report: Las Vegas Valley grew too quickly
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 8, 2010 at 6:18 am
From the San Diego Union Tribune:
“A nonprofit group specializing in growth management says the Las Vegas Valley was built up too rapidly over the past three decades, leading to unsustainable land-use, water and transportation policies.
The Tucson, Ariz.-based Sonoran Institute released its report Monday. It says the valley must shift from growth-dependent industries of construction and hospitality and create policies to diversify the economy and sustain resources for future generations.
The $40,000 study was commissioned by the Sierra Club and the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, which represents more than 40 liberal-leaning groups in Nevada.
Alliance officials said the depressed economy gives valley leaders an opportunity to replace land-use policies with what they say are more sustainable methods.
“I think developers have dictated public policy, and that’s got to end,” said PLAN spokesman Launce Rake. “I hope the report fuels dialogue and open debate on this issue.” … “
Continue reading this article from the San Diego Union Tribune by clicking here.
Protest workshops to guide opposition to Nevada water pipeline
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 8, 2010 at 6:13 amFrom the Deseret News:
“A series of protest workshops have been scheduled to craft opposition to a controversial Nevada pipeline.
Organized and hosted by the Great Basin Water Network, the workshops are being held to guide opponents in filing official protests to more than 100 water-right applications being sought by Southern Nevada Water Authority. The first meeting was held Wednesday in Garrison, Millard County.
Such protests have been jump-started in the wake of a January decision by the Nevada Supreme Court that tossed previous applications granted by the Nevada state water engineer, saying the process had been arbitrary and lacked the necessary considerations of long-term impacts.
A primary drive of the workshops is to solicit opposition to applications to water rights that are being sought in Utah’s portion of Snake Valley, which straddles the border of the two states. … “
Continue reading this article from the Deseret News by clicking here.
Nevada water grudge match: Surrender Dorothy
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 6, 2010 at 6:23 amFrom Emily Green at the Chance of Rain blog:
“Talk about Westerns: Over the weekend, Henry Brean of the Las Vegas Review Journal, dusted down a honey of a grudge match. It’s in Nevada, and Nevada being the driest state in the union, it’s about water.
To the south, we have Patricia Mulroy, the blonde general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, who formed her agency expressly around the idea of building a nearly 300-mile-long pipeline into the wild heart of the state to sustain otherwise impossible growth around Las Vegas.
To the north, there is the brunette. Dorothy Timian-Palmer, a former Carson City water manager, now president of the Vidler Water Company, is the face of a modern breed self-styled as “water developers.”
What, you might ask, is a “water developer”? … “
Continue reading this post from the Chance of Rain blog by clicking here.
Lahontan project brought water to thirsty rural Nevada
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 28, 2010 at 7:24 am
From the Lahontan Valley News:
“At the beginning of the 20th century, the Lahontan Dam and Reservoir near Fallon were looked upon as the way to transform the dry Nevada desert into a paradise.
Lahontan’s story begins in 1889, when the United States Geological Survey conducted several studies to determine the practicality of irrigating large portions of the American West, including dry Western Nevada.
In 1902, the United State Bureau of Reclamation was created expressly to build projects that would transport water that could be used to irrigate parts of the West, including Nevada.
Among the first five projects selected for construction by the new agency was the Truckee-Carson Project, which later became known as the Newlands Reclamation Project, in honor of U.S. Senator Francis G. Newlands of Nevada, author of the 1902 National Reclamation Act. … “
Continue reading from the Lahontan Valley News by clicking here.
Group to protest applications to draw water from rural Nevada
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 20, 2010 at 4:49 amFrom the Las Vegas Sun:
“A group composed of ranchers, miners, environmentalists and others intends to lodge objections to the newly filed 146 applications of the Southern Nevada Water Authority to draw water from rural counties to populous Las Vegas.
Abby Johnson of the Great Basin Water Network, which won a decision in the Nevada Supreme Court over the water authority, says it will file its protests to the applications that seek 250,000 acre-feet of water from several counties in eastern Nevada.
Great Basin wasn’t operating in 1989 when the water authority filed its first applications for water in rural Nevada. But it was the lead plaintiff in the suit to overturn the decision of the state engineer’s office to allocate 40,000 acre-feet of water from Spring Valley. … “
Read more from the Las Vegas Sun by clicking here.
Special legislative session advocated for Nevada water rights
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 19, 2010 at 5:05 amFrom the Las Vegas Sun:
“The Nevada Legislature should be called into special session soon to clarify confusion created by the Nevada Supreme Court on thousands of water rights, say advocates for homebuilders, organized labor and the Southern Nevada Water Authority.
Julie Wilcox, representing the water authority, told a public hearing that “a legislative fix is appropriate” as soon as possible.
The televised hearing that attracted more than 100 people in Carson City and Las Vegas on Tuesday was sponsored by the state Division of Water Resources. It will make recommendations to Gov. Jim Gibbons.
Jessica Prunty, an attorney representing NV Energy, Helen Foley of Pardee Homes in Las Vegas, Michael Johnson of the Virgin Valley Water District, Danny Thompson of the Nevada AFL-CIO and former state engineers Mike Turnipseed and Hugh Ricci, all supported calling the Legislature into special session. … “
Continue reading this article from the Las Vegas Sun by clicking here.
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