Reader comments
West desert bait-and-switch

This story troubles many greatly. Me especially. However, my fervor to stop this bait and switch looses some motivation as I realize who really is at the root of the grab. We must not kid ourselves if we are to think that anyone person in Nevada is scared that they will loose their own personal drinking water. The root is the gaming and convention industry. Without it Las Vegas would still be a small city with an Air Force base. They drive the politics and the economy. You are not only fighting a vain ambitious politician, but the corrupt money behind her. If any of our true politicians had any back bone, they would stand up to the corruptness of these backers and truly fight for the rights of Utah's water and farmers and our very delicate ecosystem.

Be careful of the salespeople. They say that there will be preventions to keep too much water from being drained. Who really believes this? Remember the Owens Valley in California that started off as lush agricultural area and was turned into a wasteland thanks to the Los Angeles region and its lust for water.

If I could draw a cartoon it would picture a extremely large, cigar-smoking fat man with a sign on his back saying greedy LV politicians, casino moguls and developers. He would be pointing a gun at a little rancher near an old-fashioned water pump with just a drop of water dripping out. It would say "give me your last drop." Las Vegas growth is out of control, Lake Mead is drying up and it's only going to get worse. Can a little guy stop a runaway growth train? Stand firm, Utah and demand that your own politicians get a backbone and stand up for your people.

It is water. To give away this resource would be foolish. Las Vegas has already done a water grab that has diminished all areas surrounding LV. But then, money talks. I hope you people in the west deseret don't mind the grab.

This editorial is excellent, except I wish people would stop saying the USGS BARCASS study "suggests Utah has plenty of water to meet such a request". BARCASS didn't say that at all. It merely calculated -- erroneously in my opinion -- a higher than previously estimated amount of plant evapotranspiration from the area (mostly from greasewood whose roots tap into the watertable). Because the basic hydrology formula is "recharge = discharge," BARCASS concluded that if discharge was higher than previously thought then recharge must be higher too. BARCASS did not analyze the effects of meeting southern Nevada's water export scheme - hence we need BARCASS II. Hopefully our congressional delegation will step up and push for it.

Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) says the only way to find out if there is water is to pump and monitor impacts. They pledged they will stop pumping if necessary. Of course, they also pledged they would only pump 25,000 acre-feet per year in Snake Valley and now they want 51,000. They pledged they would protect water rights and the environment and then petitioned the Nevada Engineer to disregard protestors to their well applications and to disregard environmental impacts in neighboring Spring Valley, NV. Even after telling the BLM they wanted to up the ante, SNWA Pat Mulroy was still publicly quoting the 25,000 AFY amount. SNWA's project has been a moving target from the beginning. The only constant is their continuing duplicity and disregard for rural Nevada and western Utah.

This looks like the free market allocating scarce resources. The total cattle production in the Snake Valley doesn't compare to what a billion dollar casino earns in a quarter.

Why stop at the Snake Valley. They should be trying for the Humboldt's water too.