Vegas water grab will damage rural Nevada

"There is no extra water" Ð Dr. James E. Deacon, Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies, Retired, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Next week, the State Water Engineer will begin hearings in Carson City to determine whether to allow Southern Nevada Water Authority to extract water from White Pine County to meet the water and growth needs of Las Vegas.

The hearing will consider the applications in Spring Valley, just west of the Great Basin National Park. The next round will consider the extraction of water from Snake Valley, which straddles the Nevada-Utah border.

The hearing process allows the applicant to present the evidence that the water is there, and that removing the water will not adversely affect the environment. Citizens and organizations (including me) who filed protests in 1989 on the Spring Valley applications will present evidence that removing the water from the valley will be detrimental to the economy and the environment, and is not in the public interest.

For the past three Sundays, the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) has advertised in this newspaper, part of a $150,000 ad campaign to convince Nevadans that SNWA is green and true blue. The ads are designed to convince readers that SNWA is a responsible steward of the environment. "At SNWA, conservation means saving more than water."

Some would argue that if SNWA had a truly effective water conservation program, modeled on Tucson or San Antonio, there would be no need to drain rural Nevada as a temporary fix to ensure the uncontrolled growth of southern Nevada.

Pat Mulroy herself, the general manager of SNWA, has sounded the alarm in advance of the State Engineer hearings. In an August interview with the Las Vegas Sun, she said that without the rural water "the whole economic confidence of Southern Nevada would start eroding. There's a whole market collapse that would happen." She said that Las Vegas' growth will stop in 2013 without White Pine County's water.

When customers of SNWA take a close look at their water utility's proposal to build a pipeline at a cost of $2 billion-$12 billion to extract a finite and diminishing amount of water from a desert more than 400 miles away, their confidence may begin to erode, too.

The water that is unappropriated in Spring Valley is sustaining agriculture, wildlife, and fragile desert plants, including rare swamp cedars, which depend on water near the surface for their survival. Remove billions of gallons of water and create the worst dustbowl east of the infamous Owens Valley, Calif., where Los Angeles extracted surface water, dried up the valley, and now spends millions of dollars on dust control.

The Southern Nevada Water Authority promises to stop the pumping if the environment is hurt. "Trust us" is the message of the SNWA ads. But their general manager also claims that without White Pine County water by 2013, Las Vegas will collapse, a pressure tactic that does not engender trust. Of course they'll promise now to stop pumping, but what about when the water table is actually threatened?

According to Snake Valley rancher Dean Baker, springs that ranchers could depend on in years past are now dry. A 2006 study done by the National Park Service and U.S. Geological Survey found that pumping of groundwater from Snake Valley will affect the springs up the mountain in the Great Basin National Park.

At a recent gathering of Utah and Nevada legislators concerned about the water grab, White Pine County Commissioner Gary Perea of Baker said that water extraction on a massive scale will deplete the water table, which people, animals and plants depend on for survival. There may be "unappropriated" water under the definition of state law, but the water sustains the hydrologic balance in the valley.

The future of rural Nevada should not be sacrificed for the uncontrolled and unsustainable growth of Las Vegas. The power and might of the Southern Nevada Water Authority must not be allowed to pervert the decision-making process.

Nevada and Utah are in the process of negotiating an agreement on the division of water in the Snake Valley. A representative of southern Nevada's interests is on the Nevada negotiating team, but no one from White Pine County is at the table.

The hearings that begin on Monday are being monitored by other states and communities facing similar urban rural water tug-of-wars.

White Pine County residents are speaking up, not giving up. They know "there is no extra water."

• Abby Johnson is a resident of Carson City, and a part-time resident of Baker, Nevada, in White Pine County. She consults on community development and nuclear waste issues. Her opinions are her own and do not necessarily reflect those of her clients.