Posted: March 10, 2009     Author: Dean Baker

SNAKE VALLEY BATTLE: DEFENDING WATER TO PRESERVE THE WEST

SNAKE VALLEY BATTLE: DEFENDING WATER TO PRESERVE THE WEST

More than one hundred residents of Snake Valley in Utah and Nevada met March 4th at Baker Hall in Baker, Nevada to discuss the importance of preparing the community for the upcoming Nevada State Water Engineer's hearings on the applications of Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) in Snake Valley. The attendees were told of the importance of having sound scientific information to be presented by creditable professionals at the hearing. The hydrologists and legal council needed for the four weeks of the hearing will cost a considerable sum of money. Remember Snake Valley is fighting the wealth and power of Las Vegas even though SNWA is pleading poverty. SNWA has only $450 million dollars in the Bank.

Greg James, the former district attorney of Inyo County, CA. spoke of the clear comparison of Owens Valley and Snake Valley. Los Angeles Water & Power (LAWP) has taken both the above and underground water from Owens Valley. The environmental, economic, and social impacts to Owens Valley are huge, much the same as the impacts to Snake Valley will be if a pipeline seven feet in diameter comes into eastern Nevada.

The biggest difference between the valleys is the recharge of water. The Sierra Range is 14,000 feet high and collects large amounts of moisture coming from the Pacific Ocean. The Sierra Mountains snow depths are about 10 times as much as that of desert mountains of eastern Nevada.

Owens Valley is next to one of the best water sources in the U S, getting 10-12 feet of snow each year from the Pacific Ocean. This DOES NOT recharge the Owens Valley water table as LAWP withdraws from 40,000 to 60,000 acre feet per year from underground water. This keeps springs dried up, with large environmental impacts. SNWA wants to withdraw 50,000 acre feet from Snake Valley each year, a desert mountain area hundreds of miles from the ocean.

Mr. James also related that LAWP has paid $5,000 a day in fines rather than obey the court order to reduce the pumping causing the lowering of the water table in Owens Valley.

Snake Valley residents attending the meeting heard of other similarities of devastation and lack of recovery in Owens Valley to what could happen in Snake Valley. It was mentioned that some with water rights holders could sell their water and take the money to go somewhere else. The rest of the residents and the environment would just have to live with the impact as has happened in Spring Valley.

The Nevada State Water Engineer has been the only entity in the previous hearings of SNWA applications with the authority to shut the pumps down when impacts occur. All Federal agencies have withdrawn their protests to SNWA's applications with no power to shut pumps off. It is vital that the governmental agencies maintain their protests in Snake Valley. The first withdrawals of protests and the stipulated agreements appear to have been from political pressure from the Federal government. The BLM says their only obligation is the mile wide, 300 mile long, right of way, not environmental problems. BLM maintains that only the Nevada State Water Engineer has the responsibility for the environmental impacts of this project. The Snake Valley water hearing will set the precedent for the future of the western United States and the water wars that will occur between rural and metropolitan areas.

Pat Mulroy, head of SNWA and Senator Harry Reid, spoke at a Brookings Institute gathering, which suggested that the western US needs to take its limited resource, water, from rural lands to grow all western metropolitan cities, not just Las Vegas. Some local residents refer to this project as the “Harry Reid Legacy Pipeline”.

Snake Valley is fighting this battle not only for themselves but for all of those who will be defending their precious resources to preserve the integrity of the environment and cultures of the entire West.

Help can be sent to:

Great Basin Water Network
1755 East Plumb Lane #170
Reno, Nevada 89502