Dozens Attend Utah-Nevada Water Deal Public Hearing

08.18.2009 by Elizabeth Ziegler

Utah Department of Natural Resources Director Michael Styler and his Nevada counterpart Allen Biaggi give a presenttion on the draft Snake Valley Aquifer agreement. More than 50 people came to the public hearing. Photo by Elizabeth Ziegler.

(KCPW News) Salt Lake City resident Chip Haskell isn’t satisfied with a controversial agreement to split the water in the Snake Valley Aquifer between Utah and Nevada. He believes it should have protections that would require funding for environmental monitoring, during a time of steep budget cuts.

“We’re seeing government programs getting cut left and right. It just seems to me that there would be a danger five, six years down the road, where we don’t have the money to monitor those things anymore,” Haskell says. “Is there anything in this agreement that would prevent that from happening?”

Haskell was one of about 50 people at the Salt Lake City public hearing for the draft agreement this morning. About a dozen commented, asking why the Department of Natural Resources isn’t holding more meetings, why Utah’s American Indian tribes weren’t at the negotiating table, and whether other options are still available.

Herriman resident Marian Fowden wants the agreement to require the state engineer to shut off the water if environmental monitoring is not done. She says this would make the agreement more acceptable to those who oppose a controversial plan to pipe water from the aquifer to Las Vegas.

“I’ve got friends and relatives on both side of the state line that feel like the SNWA has used a lot of unfair tactics and for us to just trust that they’ll do the right thing is asking a lot of these people,” Fowden says.

The last public hearing is scheduled for Thursday in Las Vegas. But the Great Basin Water Network plans to host its own public hearings and submit the comments to both states. Utah and Nevada are accepting written comments until September 14.