Pat Mulroy 101: Profile of 'The Chosen One'

Michael Dale alerted me to this a fascinating story from the Las Vegas Sun about Patricia Mulroy, who heads the Southern Nevada Water Authority and is the putative "800-pound gorilla" of Western Water.

And that's the nicest name some people call her.

One might call it a "puff piece" but I found it quite informative. I always wondered how she got started. Now I know.

Look at the picture. You want to mess with her?

Mobster Anthony "Tony the Ant" Spilotro hovering over her desk? Watch it, Tony!

Interesting that she apparently has no formal training in water.

We can complain about how unrelenting she is, but she gets the job done for Nevada, primarily southern Nevada (Clark County). Many water agencies undoubtedly wish she was their director.

"As God is my witness, I will never be thirsty again." -- apologies to Scarlett O'Hara, Gone With The Wind

Comments

[PAUL F MILLER]

As I read these comments I see humor at how the skillfully orchestrated persona of one individual ... Pat Mulroy ... so dominates nearly any discussion about WATER in the west.

She is hero, goat, water queen, mafia confident essentially a chemoleon depicted to suit our purpose in the moment.

I don't know Ms. Mulroy, but somehow I can not help but see her laughing at the "attention" she generates, perhaps I am wrong and that's OK, too.

For me ... Pat Mulroy ... fits the quintessential image of Las Vegas ... flash, pizazz, sound, glitter, center of attention ... in that mode she serves Las Vegas well.

Part of me wonders if her references to the manner in which the Compact of the River was promulgated did not honestly short-change Nevada and especially Las Vegas basin the allocation solely on the basis of existing population at the time. Neitheer Utah nor New Mexico has populations commenserate with the share they were rewarded. That Nevada since it admittance into Union has been to proverbial bastard step-child as more than 80% of its land was claimed by the federal govenment.

Whether I like it or not, Ms. Mulroy has been fighting (or use whatever word you choose)for Las Vegas essentially with one hand in an environment where the "boys" are packen' big muscle.

Pat Mulroy ... Sinner or saint, I don't know ... what's your guess...?

[John Norton]

Hurray for your water "queen". Everyone needs a bully now and then. But I find her comments that here in Utah we can't even spell the word "conservation" (kon sur va shun) despicable. So now, even if the right thing to do was sign the agreement, I have cast my vote that we don't ...EVER.

I have called every legislator, and the governor's office. And everyone I have spoken with this morning feels the same way.

Pat, I know you think you're connected??? To your Las Vegas mafia friends. But now you're going to find out how hard to is to deal with us "dumb folk who caan't even spell golly gee whizz shucks darn"

Go recycle all that Bellagio water and your man made lake water where you waste so much and leave us "poor little people" here in Utah alone.

[PAUL F MILLER]

As a native son of LV I find it amusing that folks find it quite amazing the apparent power that Pat Mulroy enjoys in LV in particular. She paid attention and learned quickly and quite successfully that it's NOT what you know by WHO you know and she made all the right connections.

That she has no formal WATER training should not be a problem as many of those in authority here in Arizona with either Az Dept Water Resources or Az Dept of Environmental Quality do not have any formal WATER training either ... "birds of a feather" ... you think ...

Whether anyone likes it or not Pat Mulroy is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to water in the west...

respectfully,

[selena ice]

hey pat im a 6th grader at cw woodbury in mrs k's class im doing a report and what i have learned is very awsome of what you did. thanks for what you did for las vegas, nevada.

[aquadoc]

Hi, Bill.

Thanks for your comments - they are always welcomed here.

In terms of Pat Mulroy not making policy on growth: I would say she doesn't make policy the same way that Robert Moses didn't make policy. Many readers will say "Robert who?", but you and I both remember him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Moses

http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/1218.html

[Bill Turner]

Those negative comments on Pat Mulroy are, in my estimation, way off base. If not for Mulroy, Las Vegas would be where it was 20 years ago and where the California Delta People are today, lost in a quagmire of bickering and stasis. Is Mulroy pro-development? Mulroy was handed a job to do. She does not make policy on growth. Go blame the City fathers. The City fathers are responsible for water rates. Is cheap water to the Bellagio too cheap. Well it has its own water treatment system and the gambling industry pays all of Nevada's bills. You figure. Pat operates the SNWA like a business, as it should be, and not some public charity. In the water wars of the future, you will be grateful for the Mulroy's and Archuleta's of the world to prevent those wars while politicians and others bicker and die of thirst.