Will SNWA Board Kill Rural Pipeline Project?

Do fish fly? Ooops - don't answer that!

Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) Executive Director Pat Mulroy wants the Authority's board to give her a Yes or No vote on the plan to pipe groundwater to the Las Vegas area from rural Nevada.

From Henry Brean's story in the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

To shore up support for a controversial project, Southern Nevada Water Authority chief Pat Mulroy will ask her board for an "up-or-down vote" on plans to pipe groundwater to Las Vegas from across rural eastern Nevada.

In a surprise announcement Thursday, Mulroy said she wants the vote held later this month "in order to show that the political will is still there to move forward with the project."

The move comes in response to a recent surge in opposition to the multibillion-dollar pipeline, she said.

"The level of noise has reached the point that we have to begin to push back," Mulroy said. "They're trying to create an erosion of will to build the project. It becomes death by a thousand cuts."

Water authority board members will be asked whether the agency should continue to seek federal permits and environmental clearances for the pipeline network, which is expected to stretch about 300 miles north and supply enough water for almost 270,000 homes.

The pivotal vote will take place Aug. 20.

I would be very surprised if the SNWA Board votes against the project. The seven-member board consists solely of elected officials: three Clark County commissioners and city council members from Las Vegas, Henderson, North Las Vegas and Boulder City. I suspect they all want continued growth, and Mulroy has tied continued growth to the pipeline project.

Brean's story continues:

If board members do the unexpected and vote to halt the project, the authority's water resource plan will have to be amended to show what Mulroy called "an absolute hole" in the valley's water supply starting in about 2020.

Mulroy warned that such uncertainty about the community's water supply would "spill over into our ability to recover economically. The banks will go crazy."

The worst-case scenario involves a drop in Lake Mead so severe that it cuts the valley off from most of its present water supply.

Without some sort of safety net like the in-state pipeline, you don't have water in hydrants," Mulroy said. "You can't put out a major fire."

One critic - Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada member Launce Rake - compared the above statements to fear-mongering. My sense is that there is some truth in what Mulroy claims will happen.

There is at least one solution to this predicament that does not involve a rural pipeline, but it's not one the go-go growth folks want to hear.

"You're going to live like Amman, Jordan. You're going to get water once a week." -- Patricia Mulroy, quoted in the article

Comments

[PAUL F MILLER]

Mr. Zetland, though I do not know you I defend your right to express what is true for you. I can not help feel you give Ms. Mulroy and SNWA far more control over the elevation in Lake Mead than either actually have. I can not see how drying up Lake Mead serves any useful purpose and this pipeline from the Ely area to LV can not be built in week or ten days and I have not heard there is even funding for such…? My personal opposition to this pipeline is based on my assessment that all water is part of the commons which by definition necessitates a total re-thinking on how water is allocated. Respectfully,

[David Zetland]

She's drying out Mead (low low prices, Vegas shoppers!) to get the pipeline. Ever see Chinatown? Some things never change...

I'll be blogging on this abomination.

[PAUL F. MILLER]

Whatever anyone might think of Ms. Mulroy, pro or con, I would invite them to consider she sees the "big" picture when it comes to water, especially from an economic perspective. Were her SNWA board to vote NO later this month on the proposed taking of water from northeast Nevada and western Utah, there would be, as she suggests, quite devastating repercussion financially for southern Nevada and especially LV. And, that folks, just ain't going to happen in my opinion.

This "taking" of water might be halted at some time as a result of political maneuvering by others, but as long as Mulroy champion's SNWA positions, she and they remain a formidable opponent in any water dialogue.

Respectfully submitted for consideration