Water Fights
Feb 17th, 2007 at 9:02 am by PSoTD
Utah lawmakers have, at least for now, pinched the straw that Southern Nevada water officials had hoped to use to syphon billions of gallons of rural underground water to sustain Las Vegas.
The Utah Legislature on Monday unanimously declared that Utah needs to gather all of the facts before signing away rights to ground water in Snake Valley on the Nevada/Utah border.
The legislative resolution, which is nonbinding but has the support of Gov. John Huntsman Jr., culminates more than two years of efforts by so-called Western Desert residents - primarily beef cattle ranchers - to protect their ground water from being drilled, pumped and piped to Las Vegas. The resolution may have the effect of delaying the pipeline project.
Southern Nevada water officials are downplaying the significance of the passage of the resolution. They say it is intended to give direction to Huntsman and should not affect ongoing pipeline negotiations between the Nevada state engineer and the Utah Natural Resources Department.
At stake is the long-term residential and commercial growth of Las Vegas at the expense of agriculture and natural resources in rural Nevada and Utah.
Wars will be fought, blood shed. Water is the most important commodity of the 21st century (christian era).
A friend of mine in Phoenix told me that water runs downhill towards money….