Stunning upsets to the Southern Nevada Water Authority's proposal to pipe rural groundwater to Las Vegas continue in 2010, first with a Nevada Supreme Court ruling in favor of the Great Basin Water Network ( ) and then with SNWA's startling failure to undermine that ruling with a strong-armed push for a hasty legislative fix during February's Special Session which was called to resolve Nevada state budget deficits.

In 2006, the GBWN filed a due process lawsuit when hundreds of 1990 protestants, their descendants and new residents were barred from participating in state water hearings on the massive water exportation project proposed in 1989. After a lower court rejection, an appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court resulted on January 28, 2010 in a 7 to 0 ruling in which the justices affirmed the constitutional right to due process.

This ruling has left the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) scrambling to use its apparently unlimited financial and political power to convince the State Legislature that a hasty "fix" was needed at the 5-day session called by the Governor in late February, 2010. When state officials interpreted the ruling very broadly as applying to all water rights decisions since 1947 and therefore upsetting the priorities for water rights, a rush to file new applications by SNWA, Vidler Water Company and others resulted, creating a "crisis."

At the end of the Special Session, SNWA's lobbyists and others failed to convince first the Nevada Senate and then the Assembly to adopt hastily developed amendments to Nevada's water law. The legislature was persuaded not to fix SNWA's problems for many reasons. These included unresolvable issues of due process and the separation of powers (i.e. legislative meddling in judicial proceedings). 

In addition, legislators testified about their frank fear that a quick legislative decision without any opportunity for the affected public to testify might result in worse problems.

Instead, the Legislature issued a letter to the State Engineer urging him to work on any problems not resolved by the Nevada Supreme Court.

Will science and the law prevail over political power and money in the Nevada water wars? Stay tuned.

For more news on these court and legislative victories in our water campaign, go to: http://greatbasinwaternetwork.org

 

to endemic snails and fish dependent on the Valley's sparsely distributed waters.

We visited the site of a mid-1800's homestead, now thoroughly obliterated, in the middle of the valley.  It certainly had water sources nearby when it was homesteaded.  We found some homestead artifacts, including square nails and early barbed wire.  Dean pointed to a spot which may well have been a spring and stream in the time of the homestead operations.

After lunch at the Border Inn, we travelled through the verdant Baker Ranch's fields and its natural meadows arriving at the NV Dept. of Wildlife Spring Creek fish hatchery on Snake Creek.  The hatchery gets all of its water from a large, nearby spring.  SNWA has proposed many wells above the hatchery's spring.   

Heading southeast passing Garrison Utah just a few miles east of the state line, we arrive at Preuss 

Editor  note: The purpose of the trip was to highlight the problems with the SNWA plans to export 16 billion gallons of water each year from Snake Valley to support breakneck housing growth in Las Vegas.  Ranchers (and the Sierra Club) say the pumping will destroy the environment and the valley's communities in both Utah and Nevada.  Even existing pumping is causing springs to dry up and wetlands to diminish.  See the map below showing the proposed pumping areas (Red Dots) adjacent to the Great Basin National Park and its proximity to springs and the communities of Snake Valley.