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Now the hard part: Parties await water pipeline decision
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LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Friends and foes of the Southern Nevada Water Authority's pipeline project took one last opportunity to snipe at each other Friday, as a state hearing on the controversial plan finally came to a close in Carson City.
The proceeding that began on Sept. 26 wrapped up at just after 11 a.m. on its final day, following closing arguments by all the parties involved.
Water authority attorney Paul Taggart spent most of his allotted time trying to poke holes in the arguments presented against the project over the past 53 days.
But Taggart began his closing remarks with a statement everyone in the hearing room probably would agree with: "This is obviously the most important water case the state has ever heard."
The authority is seeking state permission to siphon up to 126,000 acre-feet of groundwater a year from four rural valleys in Lincoln and White Pine counties.
If stretched through reuse, that is enough to supply more than 425,000 homes in a community that now gets 90 percent of its water from the Colorado River.
The groundwater would be pumped to Las Vegas through a multibillion-dollar pipeline network stretching more than 300 miles.
Nevada's top water regulator, State Engineer Jason King, is expected to rule on the groundwater applications underpinning the project by the end of March.
He has a lot to consider between now and then.
The official record for the hearing will feature tens of thousands of documents and a transcript covering six weeks of testimony by 82 witnesses.
Taggart said it will be up to King to determine what is "substantial evidence" and what is "just paper."
Attorney Simeon Herskovits, who served as the chief voice of the opposition during the state hearing, urged King to remember that when it comes to the water authority's voluminous evidence, "quantity is no substitute for quality."
Herskovits gave a lengthy closing statement that was cut short by chief hearing officer Susan Joseph-Taylor after it went well past the 15-minute time limit. In it, the attorney attacked the authority's tactics and its testimony, accusing the agency of putting on a "stage-managed" case filled with "extraordinary theatrics" and "heavy-handed lawyering."
Paul Hejmanowski, attorney for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, urged King to reject the authority's 22-year-old groundwater applications because they are dated and flawed. He said the authority failed to prove that its plans as presented would not dry springs and damage water rights used by the church-owned Cleveland-Rogers Ranch in White Pine County's Spring Valley.
"This project will cause groundwater mining on an unprecedented scale," said Hejmanowski, who works for Lionel, Sawyer & Collins, one of Nevada's top law firms. "That ought not happen on our watch."
Attorney Paul EchoHawk from the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Nation lashed out at the U.S. Department of the Interior and Bureau of Indian Affairs for dropping its protest of the pipeline project and entering into a monitoring agreement with the water authority in 2006. EchoHawk called it a "backroom deal" struck without consultation or consideration of the American Indians in the area.
He also renewed the tribes' cultural and spiritual objections to large-scale groundwater pumping in White Pine County's Spring Valley, the site of a 19th-century massacre of Indians.
EchoHawk said that during testimony about the massacre, one tribal member left the hearing room in tears.
Steven Reich, representing one of the hearing's most unusual participants, argued against the pipeline as a "short-term strategy that will cause long-term harm." Reich was speaking on behalf of The Long Now Foundation, a San Francisco-based group of intellectuals that wants to foster "the long view" in society by building a clock that will tick for 10,000 years.
The foundation owns ranch land in Spring Valley and an old mine in the mountains above.
Reich said the state engineer should base his decision on sound science, "not the short-term needs of a wasteful city built in an arid area."
"It's our duty to be good ancestors," he said.
The hearing's last words went to the water authority's Taggart, who noted that many of the nation's largest cities get their water from someplace outside their boundaries. It's time for Las Vegas to start doing the same, he said.
"Approve these applications to secure a safe and reliable water supply for seven out of 10 Nevadans and to secure the economic viability of the state as a whole," Taggart said.
Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350.
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Do any of you know how much the pipeline will cost you? Last I looked it was 15 Billion. Who pays for it? Think Clark County alone will pay? Nah, my guess is you'll try not only to pilfer the water no matter what the cost, but you'll sucker each and every Nevadan to pay, right? Each and every one of you who support this pipedream should be ashamed. Reminds me of the fed gov, can't live within it's means when it comes to money, southern Nevada refuses to live within it's means when it comes to water. I also believe this will be approved by the State, as undisclosed moneys echange hands, favors here and there, ranches bought along the way,,, you know how the game is played. Disgusting, shame on you Las Vegas.
This pipeline is the work of Dirty Hairy Greid. His only, only interest in Nevada is how much he can take out of it. You younger people watch. The Interstate 11 project will cross thru serious land holdings of Dirty Hairy. The water pipeline will have a spigot located at Coyote Springs. Unfortunatly we here in Southern Nevada have no means of getting to the truth. We have no means of getting the truth out if we did get to it. Our media here is bought and paid for by Dirty Hairy Greid.
This is what We the people have allowed America to become. A cash cow for the likes of Greid, Pelosi, Bush, and the Clown Prince O'Drama,
Water is an essential requirement for life, second only to air. Why we Humans have allowed politicians to corner the market on water is astonishing to me. Mulroy has instituted policies that make using water a punitive act. Buying advertising that treats us all like mentally challenged adolescents. All while building this empire with money running out the door. Recently adding $35 million to a project that is over a year behind and over budget by who knows how much. $450,000.00 rebate for grass removal in Henderson. Are you kidding me?
I know it's a desert out there. does Mulroy?
All public works projects need to be OPPOSED.
Say NO! to BIG Government.
As I've said before, what is needed is for local elected officials to grow some b*lls and hold the SNWA accountable, as well as instituting smart growth management in the Valley.
Do you realize that the SMNWA has NEVER made public any cost analysis of the options to the $15.5 BILLION pipeline proposal?
A smart growth measure would be to live within the current disposal boundary around the Las Vegas Valley; a population of about 2.5-3 million could be accomodated, allowing for future growth and we would have enough water.
I just watched the News of homeowners challenging the Water Authority over ordinarily 40 dollar bills going into the thousands. The Arrogance of this department was stunning. They only agreed to review any bills the reporter brought to their attention, what about all the other homeowners with obvious problems.
Dismantle this Department/Agency - they seem to be incapable of running a Toy Train, never mind a muli-Billion dollar project.
Las Vegas needs a Home Construction Building moratorium for the next ten years to allow us to discover where to spend our very limited resources.
Poor planning and leadership, greed, and dangerous myopia (par for the course in LV) brought us here. I hope the state engineer does the right thing and torpedoes this idea once and for all. This is what unsustainable growth combined with the limits of local ecology look like.
There is enough water going into the gulf of Mexico from the Missippippi
river to supply all the water the dry American southwest could ever use!
West Texas is enjoying another drought so a pipe could/should have
support from Texas to California and every state between.
If you have driven around rural Nevada you will have notices millions of
acres of flat land the could have unlimited potential and most of this
land is owned by all Americans so a pipeline wouldn't be held ransom by
few private interests.
Right now America has billions of dollars worth of construction equiptment
setting idle and thousands of experienced construction workers who need
a job.
If our politicians can back a train to nowhere [LV to Victorville] that will benefit
very few people they should be able to back a project that would eventually
benefit millions of Americans.
The key is RECHARGE. If you take out more groundwater than is being put back in the system by rain and snow infiltration, then you are taking out groundwater that was probably put in during the last ice age, when the local climate was far wetter than it is today. This is called "mining fossil groundwater." Once it's gone, it's gone. And as a poster in another article very appropriately said, "then what?"
Remember what happened to the Owens Valley?