Nevada Water Official Responds to Activists' Claims
Jul 08, 2008 by Elizabeth Ziegler
(KCPW News) Activists in Utah and Nevada allege the Southern Nevada Water Authority is trying to bar the public from an upcoming water hearing to determine water rights to a vast underground aquifer spanning the border near Snake Valley, Utah. Not true, says Pat Mulroy, the water authority's general manager.
"Any allusion to, or correlation, to say that this is an attempt to keep the public out of the process is simply not true," Mulroy says.
A meeting is scheduled to determine the amount of water the State Engineer will let the water authority take out of the aquifer under Snake Valley.
"There is a number that is known of what the State Engineer will allow Southern Nevada take out of Snake Valley," Mulroy says. "Then all the hyperbole, all the exaggerated numbers will have been whittled down to a number to the one under consideration that the State Engineer will even consider."
Mulroy says a hearing scheduled for July 15 is an administrative pre-hearing and public testimony over the groundwater project will be accepted at a later date.
However, Steve Erickson of the Great Basin Water Network says it is vital for those who will be impacted by the project to have their concerns heard at the meeting next week. Erickson says stakeholders, including ranchers, American Indian tribes, conservationists and county officials from Utah and Nevada have asked to be considered "interested persons" so they could testify at the hearing, but were denied after the Southern Nevada Water Authority filed a "Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation."
"Only those people who filed protests back in 1989, when the original project was proposed, would have standing to bring a case before the engineer," Erickson says. "And here on the populous Wasatch Front, it would exclude the concerns of Salt Lake County and Utah County, if they de-water the valley due to this pumping project."
Mulroy claims the misunderstanding is one of many in the strained negotiation process over the shared resource.
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1. Ray Walker said:
Trust me, as a retired water referee for the Court, this legal wrangling over potential/probable damage to the environment and the water rights in the region will never cease !
There is a simple fresh water Source solution that will provide all the water necessary for the region.
Development of the Source will not damage the environment or the water rights of anyone, anywhere, including those of the SNWA.
All of this litigation will not create one new drop of water for Nevada.
Water from the Source is ALL NEW WATER for Nevada !
Development of the Source will not disturb the plans of the SNWA and will save the SNWA a serious chunk of change.
A simple investigation would verify the validity of the new fresh water Source.
Strangely, the opposition in this matter have also refused to investigate, let alone provide the viable alternative to the Nevada State Engineer for his consideration.
Old prospectors in Nevada used to say, "you can lead a mule to water, but you can't make it drink"....were they right ?
Ray Walker (Retired Water Rights Analyst) waterrdw@yahoo.com
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