Now THAT is a good question!

Props to Phoebe Sweet of the LVS for her questions to the Las Vegas Valley Water Authority in their plans to pump water from Rural Nevada to Vegas. Read the article here.

Where are the Environmentalists?

State Water Engineer Tracy Taylor agreed to allow the Las Vegas Valley Water Authority to pump 6 BILLION gallons of water a year from rural Nevada to quench an overheated Las Vegas. Did you hear that? SIX BILLION GALLONS A YEAR from our farmers and ranchers AND pristine Nevada desert! LVRJ

Where are the environmentalist protesters? Where are the discussions on fish, turtles, rabbits and plants that will be destroyed with this water drainage. I don't understand how all the all this can happen without hundreds of lawsuits filed by US Fish and Wildlife, Sierra Club, Forestry Services and even Indian Reservations! This doesn't just effect the farmers and ranchers.

Every time a farmer wants to move a water right permit from one field down the road a mile to another field HE OWNS he get hit with 100 lawsuits from these groups. Now LVVWA is moving billions, and piping it a couple HUNDRED MILES there is not a peep from US Fish and Wildlife. Can someone answer where these people are on this?

Water to the FRONT

In both the LVS and LVRJ papers you will find articles on water usage in Las Vegas and the pipeline proposal.

Vegas seems to think this is a done deal. Vegas seems to think that all it will take is a little more negotiation and water will come GUSHING from White Pine and Lincoln Counties to serve Las Vegas' growth. All that SEEMS to be left is a small deal with Utah.

PRO Nevada appreciates the farmers and ranchers who cashed in on the thirst of Vegas by selling their acre-feet of water, but PRO Nevada stands against pumping the water to Vegas for billions of dollars. That's right BILLIONS of dollars. As we said in a previous post Las Vegas can build a desalinization plant in Mexico for $250 million, with no annoying California environmentalist whackos stopping it. Why use up water that farmers, ranchers and miners already use in mid Nevada when you can trade desal' plants for water out of the Colorado? It is like driving 50 miles to see a movie that is playing in your back yard FOR LESS MONEY! Why is the Vegas Water Authority even messing with northern water? It is more expensive, it is expendable as opposed to the ocean of water in Mexico, and it is more environmentally sound.

Kudos to the ranchers and farmers who cashed in on LVVWA's stupidity but, seriously Vegas, get your head out of your ass.

The SUN is softening!

The Las Vegas SUN has softened a bit. Their editorial today shows a crack in the door of their unwavering and staunch support of the LVVWA (Las Vegas Valley Water Authority) plan to build a pipeline from Northern Nevada to serve a thirsty Las Vegas and drain the rest.

They still aren't FOR the desalinization plant but the say it could be a "long term solution" which is more than they have ever giving the project before. So we at PRO Nevada give a cheer for the SUN. Baby steps, baby steps, maybe next week or next month they we START to consider the damage that will be done to the Northern Counties by this mult-billion-dollar scam. But baby steps are good.

Couple of things for them to consider:

Here's a quote "But desalination is certainly not a short-term option, given the expense of building and operating a plant, not to mention the environmental issues associated with desalination." TELL ME, what do you consider short term and long term? Years? Decades? Desal' plants are in operation NOW and the technology is there, it is as simple as building a factory. The pipeline is no less than 5 years away IF it happens, probably more like 10 years away once they cut through the permits and environmental impact studies. So which is short term and which is long term?

Here's another quote: "The process requires a tremendous amount of money, and environmentalists note that the demand for more electricity means more power plants, which come with their own set of costs and environmental issues." NOT near as much money as this crazy pipeline, in fact we could build EIGHT desal' plants for the price of this pipeline. (See previous post) It would demand electricity and that is the only REAL issue the SUN is addressing.

Next quote: "Trying to build a plant in California would be a difficult — and expensive — task." That is definitely right as rain. BUT why build in California? Mexico is just as happy, if not happier, to have American dollars spent on a number of desal' plants, give more Mexicans good jobs AND as I stated in the previous post, the "brine" is a commodity that can be sold, NOT dumped back into the ocean. (even if that drop in a VERY LARGE bucket would make any difference)

So PRO Nevada is proud of the SUN for taking these baby steps. We hope they will learn to walk on their own soon.

Desalinization Desmalinization

The Las Vegas Sun took time out of its busy schedule of panning everything Republican and conservative to pen an article on Desalinization, even giving it a title "Desalinization Gets a Serious Look"

Unfortunately they didn't give it that look. Clouded by the unassuming smoothness of Pat Mulroy at the Water Authority and by Californian environmental groups they gave desalinization as an option less than a paragraph in the article. The rest of the time they praised the pipeline, lamented the possibility of dead fish, and crooned about the impractical if not impossible.

They did end it on what I am sure they consider a positive note with a PRO Nevada quote from Launce Rake "“This is a country that put a man on the moon, a country with enormous intelligence and financial resources. We can do this if we have the political will.”

While I am sure Launce meant well and was probably misquoted or taken out of context like the Sun tends to do but desalinization is NOT the equivalent of a moon shot. A desal' plant is the equivalent of building a factory, happens all the time and everywhere. The issue continues to be the amount of POWER needed to make it worth the effort. Unlike the moon shot, the technology is there and waiting.

For a mere $250 million we (meaning Nevada) can build a plant in Mexico and get the credit towards drawing more water from Lake Mead. Okay, $250 million is not chump change but compare that to the LVVWA plan to spend $2 billion on a pipeline (which will probably grow to $4-5 billion by the time there are done) we could build EIGHT DESAL' PLANTS for that!

Many Desal' plants already have alternative energy sources using waves and wind to power the process. Environmental groups complain that the salt goes back into the ocean and kills fish due to its high concentration. 1st that is a literal drop in the bucket and 2nd that salt can be a commodity for some entrepreneurial desal' plant operator.

So check out the article but keep the pressure on Mulroy and her friends in the Sun to push the Desal' plants as a legitimate alternative.

More on the Water Grab

Jim Sanford has a good (long) article where he very clearly articulates many of the issues related to the need and use of water in Nevada. Give it a read.

Especially fun to read is Las Vegas Mayor Goodman who claims that CA farmer will let their cropland go fallow before Las Vegas drys up. Jim seems to be pushing a few proposals on reversing some rivers and building some canals that would send "unallocated" water into the arid West. I don't quite understand what he is proposing but I have started an email dialogue with him and will keep you informed as to whether this is PRO Nevada or not.

17 Alternatives to the Stealing of Rural Nevada Water

Here is a great article by Mark Bird in the Salt Lake Tribune. A VERY PRO Nevada article written by a professor at the College of Southern Nevada.

17 Alternatives to the water pipeline proposed by Nevada

We could not agree MORE. Pat Mulroy and Jon Ralston are you listening?

PRO Nevada on why Jon Ralston is an Idiot

On Sunday, February 24 the Las Vegas Sun posted Jon Ralston's column titled "Jon Ralston on why the governor's suggestion to build a desalinization plant misses the point" PRO Nevada offers this assessment of his comments:

1] Jon is an idiot because he cannot contain is obvious dislike for Gov. Gibbons. Any hint that his columns are unbiased or fair dribbles away with his cheap comments "Hey, Governor, did you notice the state budget is underwater?" and "plagiarized Elko screed" and "of course, Gibbons knows water from the ground up."

2] Jon is an idiot because he calls what is "short-sighted" visionary and what is visionary, short-sighted. To say that spending ever increasing Yucca-like billions on a thousand mile pipeline through Nevada's desert to water the grounds at Caesar's Palace is visionary and "essential" and the Governor's suggestion that we spend the billions on creating a NEW SOURCE for water is short sighted and "nutty" is to show Jon's idiotic tendencies.

3] Jon is an idiot because he doesn't understand how ALL water is related. He says Gibbons misses the point because desalinating in AZ, CA and Mexico won't help the overuse of the Colorado River. What is he thinking? I guess he was just clouded by his dislike of the Governor because if CA takes one gallon out of the Pacific ocean that means it will take one less gallon out of the Colorado. If Mexico can convert salt water into fresh water for it's crops and people they will not need as much of the Colorado. Maybe Jon is swayed by the polished, good-looking, alto-voiced Pat Mulroy in her calming commercials as she thanks Las Vegas for their conserving efforts and casually mentions raping the rural counties.

4] Jon is an idiot because he is all FOR the environmentalists as they attempt to stop Yucca but he calls them "Environmental Screechers" when they attempt to stop this foolish pipeline.

The parallels are obvious between Yucca and the Pipeline: we will spend increasing billions on something that will probably never happen and is environmentally suspect instead of spending billions on new technologies to take care of the REAL problems. Instead of the whole US trying to screw Nevada, Las Vegas and Jon Ralston are trying to screw the rural counties.

Jon Ralston is obvious PRO Las Vegas and not PRO Nevada.

Now were Talking Common Sense

The Las Vegas Sun actually gave Governor Gibbons a positive news story. I think this is the first time since - well I don't remember it ever happening. In "Gibbons takes another whack at pipeline plan" the Sun restrains itself from making any negative comments and sticks to just conflicting comments between Gibbons and one of his advisors. Read all of Gibbons comments in the Lahontian Valley News

But lets talk about the real meat behind the story. Doesn't this seem like common sense? Instead of spending BILLIONS of dollars buiding a pipeline to pump rural Nevada dry for a very thirsty Las Vegas lets spend BILLIONS and develope a NEW SOURCE for water instead. I mean really? Lets turn our unlimited salt water, covering 70% of the earth's surface into drinkable water instead of taking the limited ranchers and farmers water from rural Nevada. Now I understand that the Las Vegas Water Authority has bought up millions of acres in rural Nevada for the water rights and I don't begrudge the ranchers and farmers from selling to make a good profit but stopping this now is the BEST IDEA.

In fact why isn't EVERY POLITICIAN scrambling to support this? Harry Reid is so set against coal plants in rural Nevada for environmental reasons why would he not support Gibbons in stopping this pipeline for environmental reasons. Granted salt water is not as abundant and renewable as the sun, wind, and geothermal is but it is damn close. Before this gets any further PRONevada calls on our local and state politicians to become PRO Nevada and stop the pipeline before it goes any further!

PRONevada.org