Vol. 5, No. 20
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August 15, 2008
Nevada's Online State News Journal-- Serving Informed Nevadans Since 2003
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Utah Counties File Federal
Suit Over SNWA Water
Snake Valley Aquifer
At Risk They Say
A suit has been filed in a Nevada District Court demanding that State Engineer Tracy Taylor allow Salt Lake County and Utah County to participate in Snake Valley water hearings as interested party(s). Taylor said since the counties didn’t protest the water plan when it first was devised in 1989, they should have no say in the matter.
Snake Valley covers a considerable amount of land in eastern White Pine County, Nevada, and in western Utah, and is home to large agricultural holdings. At the heart of the plan is the 300 mile pipeline envisioned by the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) to deliver about 300,000 acre feet of water annually to the Las Vegas Valley. So far, SNWA has been given the right to pump water from valleys and aquifers in White Pine County and Lincoln County, including Spring Valley, Cave Springs, Dry Lake Valley, and Delamar Valley.
There is a tremendous amount of opposition to the water importation plan outside Las Vegas, and that now includes the two Utah counties. The counties are saying that pumping the Snake Valley aquifer would create another Owens Valley and add to a high air pollution problem along the Wasatch Front. They fear dust clouds similar to those seen in the eastern California area of Owens Valley. When Los Angeles drained the Owens Lake and claimed all the water pouring into the Owens River, they turned an agricultural paradise into a dust bowl. The Owens Valley is reportedly one of the nation’s worst polluted places, from swirling dust storms.
Along with the request by the Utah Association of Counties to be given interested party status, Nevada’s Engineer also denied the request of three Native American tribal bands that feel they would be impacted by the pumping of the ground water. There have been threats before that federal court action could begin. Utah feels it is being neglected in all of the dealings with ground water pumping that affects cross state aquifers. Before the pipeline can be built, there are still many hurdles that must be cleared including environmental impact statements, concerns from the Great Basin National Park, and questions involving wild animals and birds.
The cost of the project has been estimated as anywhere from $3.5 billion to $8 billion, all to be paid by water users in the Las Vegas Valley. According to SNWA, the valley uses about 300,000 acre feet of water annually, drawn mostly from Lake Mead. That is also the maximum allocation the state will receive from Lake Mead, and for growth in Las Vegas to continue, another large source of water must be available. Pumping the ground water from eastern Nevada is the answer, according to the water distribution quasi governmental agency. The plan has never been discussed in an open political atmosphere such as a ballot question, nor have the finances of the plan ever been fully and publicly discussed.
Engineer Taylor has introduced one new aspect to the Snake Valley hearing that hasn’t been seen before. The science of hydrology often revolves on modeling, and models of what the ground water pumping affect over many years would be have not been used in any of the previous hearings. Taylor said he wants models available when the Snake Valley hearings are held, probably in late 2009. Aquifers are generally fed by winter storms, often from mountains many miles distant, and the computer generated hydrologic models would indicate what long term effect, that is, hundreds of years of pumping, would have on the aquifer and the resulting ground vegetation. Up until recently, Taylor has not had computer generated ground water modeling capabilities in the engineer’s office.
One argument that has been raised often the fact that the entire area of the west, the Colorado River Basin and the Great Basin, has been under the influence of a prolonged drought. Lake Mead is at historic lows, areas of Nevada, Utah, Idaho, and Oregon, inside the Great Basin have experienced very dry winter conditions and log hot summers for several years running, and the fear of pumping great amounts of water from existing ground water supplies could cause even more problems. Because computer modeling has not been used in previous hearings, this question has not been addressed.
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