Stop Las Vegas Water Grab
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Author:
n/a -
Send To:
Southern Nevada Water Authority, Nevada State Water Engineer, Senator Reid
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Sponsored By:
Western Shoshone Defense Project -
More Info at:
We oppose the Southern Nevada Water Authoritys (SNWA) Groundwater Development Plan! This is an unjust, ill conceived plan that is designed to benefit urban Las Vegas to the detriment of the Western Shoshone Nation and rural Nevadans. The Plan would affect water within the boundaries of Western Shoshone territory and is a violation of the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley.
In purely technical terms, to pump 200,000 acre feet of water (over 65 billion gallons) annually through a 300 mile, 7 foot wide pipeline would cause the depletion of Nevadas Great Basin aquifer. Renowned scientists have strongly warned that this would have a devastating effect:
Dr. Jim Deacon, a UNLV biologist and top researcher on desert biology stated that there would be a noticeable decline in the groundwater table extending approximately from Death Valley, California to Sevier Lake, Utah. The groundwater draw down from Indian Springs to Bakers, Nevada could exceed 50 feet, dropping as low as 1600 feet.
Dr. Martin Mifflin, a hydrologist that has studied Nevada ground water for over 50 years, along with many other experts, suspect that Nevadas groundwater basins are connected at some level far below the surface.
Western Shoshone elders in the past and the present confirm what the scientists are saying. Shoshone creation stories stem from the Great Basin area and the Shoshone state that all the waters are connected. According to Shoshone teachings, the water underneath the ground attracts the moisture above the ground meaning that with the depletion of underground water there will be lower and lower rainfall amounts, crippling already drought-ridden areas. A removal of water like the one proposed in the SNWAs Plan would devastate the semi-arid desert area and threaten the existence of our plants and animals including 20 listed endangered species and 137 native species restricted to springs and wetlands.
SNWA officials claim that the siphoning of water will not have a negative impact. However, when farming conglomerates began pumping water at Ash Meadows, NV, Devils Hole with its endangered Pup Fish was nearly drained until the Supreme Court ordered an end to the pumping. At Owens Valley, California, regardless of assurances by authorities, Owens Lake disappeared; turning Owens Valley into a desert after a similar massive pipeline project was allowed to supply the City of Los Angeles with water.
Nevadas indigenous communities, as well as other small communities, ranchers and farmers are already increasingly faced with drying wells, believed to be caused partially by climate change in the form of decreased mountain snow and rain fall, as well as by intensive agriculture and massive water use by ever expanding, large-scale mining. In the SNWA plan there has been NO mention made to assess water wasted by the mining industry.
We are also alarmed and highly concerned with the future prospect of 2 new coal power plants in our backyards which would provide the energy to power the pipeline. We will lose our water and instead be given toxic air.
No is No! Do not turn Nevada into a wasteland! We urge the Nevada State Water Engineer and SNWA to immediately put a stop to this unrealistic plan that is threatening not only our way of life, but the entire Nevadan landscape.
In purely technical terms, to pump 200,000 acre feet of water (over 65 billion gallons) annually through a 300 mile, 7 foot wide pipeline would cause the depletion of Nevadas Great Basin aquifer. Renowned scientists have strongly warned that this would have a devastating effect:
Dr. Jim Deacon, a UNLV biologist and top researcher on desert biology stated that there would be a noticeable decline in the groundwater table extending approximately from Death Valley, California to Sevier Lake, Utah. The groundwater draw down from Indian Springs to Bakers, Nevada could exceed 50 feet, dropping as low as 1600 feet.
Dr. Martin Mifflin, a hydrologist that has studied Nevada ground water for over 50 years, along with many other experts, suspect that Nevadas groundwater basins are connected at some level far below the surface.
Western Shoshone elders in the past and the present confirm what the scientists are saying. Shoshone creation stories stem from the Great Basin area and the Shoshone state that all the waters are connected. According to Shoshone teachings, the water underneath the ground attracts the moisture above the ground meaning that with the depletion of underground water there will be lower and lower rainfall amounts, crippling already drought-ridden areas. A removal of water like the one proposed in the SNWAs Plan would devastate the semi-arid desert area and threaten the existence of our plants and animals including 20 listed endangered species and 137 native species restricted to springs and wetlands.
SNWA officials claim that the siphoning of water will not have a negative impact. However, when farming conglomerates began pumping water at Ash Meadows, NV, Devils Hole with its endangered Pup Fish was nearly drained until the Supreme Court ordered an end to the pumping. At Owens Valley, California, regardless of assurances by authorities, Owens Lake disappeared; turning Owens Valley into a desert after a similar massive pipeline project was allowed to supply the City of Los Angeles with water.
Nevadas indigenous communities, as well as other small communities, ranchers and farmers are already increasingly faced with drying wells, believed to be caused partially by climate change in the form of decreased mountain snow and rain fall, as well as by intensive agriculture and massive water use by ever expanding, large-scale mining. In the SNWA plan there has been NO mention made to assess water wasted by the mining industry.
We are also alarmed and highly concerned with the future prospect of 2 new coal power plants in our backyards which would provide the energy to power the pipeline. We will lose our water and instead be given toxic air.
No is No! Do not turn Nevada into a wasteland! We urge the Nevada State Water Engineer and SNWA to immediately put a stop to this unrealistic plan that is threatening not only our way of life, but the entire Nevadan landscape.
37 Signatures
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Jason Bill
- Comments
- The Las Vegas Water Grab needs to look at what happened to Los Angeles and how it turned that into a dustbowl because the same thing is going to happen to Nevada.
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Larson Bill
- Comments
- Stop it now!!!
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Julie Ann Cavanaugh Bill
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Gabriella M. Cebada Mora
- Comments
- Destroying an aquifer, and the lives and landscape that rely on it, may take a lifetime; trying to stop or remedy that destruction is the legacy you will leave for generations to come. SNWA needs to change their view on growth from that of expansion to urban renewal. Revitalization and infrastructure upgrades can help provide the jobs and economic stimulus the city needs. The old paradigm of growth can not be sustained. Lets wait and see is not acceptable. Now is the time to think out of the box and find real, lasting solutions for the people of Nevada and stand as an example for the rest of the country and the world.
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Simone Senogles
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scott royder
- Comments
- RESPECT Mother Earth and End Exploitation!!
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Kandi Mossett
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Dana Best
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Carrie Dann
- Comments
- SNWA's plan is crazy. Money cannot solve this problem. Mr. State Engineer, put your thinking cap on and save the area from becoming a desert. Protect the communities and life in those areas. We cannot meet the needs of life on Mother Earth if we continue to grow as we are.
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Anne Kretchman
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Robert Shimek
- Comments
- Water, or lack of it is not the issue. There are too many people living in an area that is not environmentaslly suited to have that many. Deal with the carrying capacity of the land, than make a determination about the water.
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Kim Townsend
- Comments
- Las Vegas needs to slow their roll!! As in limiting growth and population of the Las Vegas area.
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Virginia Sanchez, Duckwater Shoshone Tribe
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charlotte atkins
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John R. Lawson
- Comments
- If the water grab continues I will never visit Las Vegas again !!!
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Goria Vuocolo
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Marc Hamernik
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Evelyn Tanner
- Comments
- LasVegas needs to solve their own problem locally, not steal from others.
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Sam Mahoney
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Frank McCullough
- Comments
- This is unfair to people and animals of the northern counties
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Gary Oscar Barnett
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Tim Macleod
- Comments
- how about water saver shower heads and toilets
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Tim Macleod
- Comments
- how about water saver shower heads and toilets
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Robert Johnson
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Kevin Blumer
- Comments
- I believe that Las Vegas only wants the water to continue with unchecked development. If Vegas needed the water to sustain its current population, that would be one thing, but to take water from other communities to feed an insatiable appetite for growth is irresponsible. At some point, water will not keep pace with development. I believe that point has been reached and that Las Vegas should be denied in this instance.
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Bruce Reynolds
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Victor B Wilkinson
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Susan Wilkinson
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irina
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Crista Stewart
- Comments
- As a White Pine County land owner and Great-Great Grandaughter to an early Nevada family from Spring Valley, I vehemently oppose this action which would severely alter nature's balance in these beautiful areas. If BLM authorizes this it would be a violation of the Federal Trust responsibility to the Western Shoshone. Let southern Nevada support thier own and not steal from the rural counties!
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BRETON
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Joel Giraud
- Comments
- I am a hydrogeologist and have studied the water resources in Three Lakes and Indian Springs Valleys. Additional withdrawals are not sustainable.
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Launce Rake
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Angela DaSilva
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Janet Hughes
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37
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