Listen closely to hear good ideas about water issue

Political candidates have been hesitant to voice support for the proposal to suck water out of White Pine County to feed the growth in Las Vegas, but even in their efforts to avoid offending the north or the south we've heard some good ideas.

Gubernatorial candidates Jim Gibbons and Dina Titus, for example, advocate more studies and inventories of water supplies before a pipeline is approved. We support that too, as long as those surveys are done objectively and any indication of environmental damage they produce is given precedence over Southern Nevada's insatiable thirst.

Imagine if the deal goes through and huge developments become dependent on that water. What happens when signs of environmental damage show up in White Pine County ... is there any Southern Nevada politician who will agree to shut off the flow to those homes?

Something everyone should be able to agree on is that it's a bad precedent to steal one area's future to support another's.

Even Bob Unger, a Las Vegas developer and candidate for lieutenant governor, agrees with that concept. He won't win many Northern Nevada votes for saying so, but he believes the multi-billion dollar water diversion from White Pine County will be the short-term solution.

We see merit in what he deems to be the long-term solution - building a desalinization plant along the coast, possibly even in Mexico.

Expensive, yes, but when it comes to water and Las Vegas, money doesn't seem to be an object.

There are just too many unknowns about the effects of the proposed White Pine project, and we believe Vegas can still learn a lot about water conservation from other Western metropolises.