As explained below Gov. Herbert has been at the cusp of signing the deeply flawed agreement with Nevada but for whichever reason has been hesitant. He needs to be convinced through letters that this agreement should never be signed. Below are talking points from Brian Moench MD, from UPHE, and Terry Marasco. Also comments from this office were formally submitted below during the public comment period they are still relevant in terms of comments of protest to the governor. Herbert’s e-mail is: gherbert@utah.gov
The DAQ stonewalled a later and more convenient public hearing. So far the only public hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010. At the Magna Chamber of Commerce, 9145 W 2700 South, Magna, Ut. 7:00 pm.
Water Grab Opinion Piece
Poised to hold the coat of the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) while they pushed Utah off a cliff, Gov. Herbert has now taken one step back from the brink. To suggest that Utah continue tinkering with the fine print of the Snake Valley Water Agreement is like arguing over what tunes should the band play while the Titanic sinks. We offer ten reality checks.
1. The purpose of any agreement is to drain enormous volumes of water from Snake Valley to support real estate speculators and casino operators in Sin City. Over 70 years the water Utah would surrender to Nevada would fill a skyscraper 1 acre square, 471 miles high.
2. “Possession is 90% of the law.” Once Nevada has spent billions to make hundreds of thousands of people dependent on that water, no judge or court will turn off the tap regardless of the fine print in the Agreement, regardless of whether Snake Valley has become a ghost town or how much dust covers Temple Square. The saga of the notorious William Mulholland stealing Owens Valley water for Los Angeles is exactly what Utah can expect to be repeated.
3. Why does Herbert want an agreement and why have our entire Congressional delegation deserted us? Investigative journalists from the Las Vegas Sun, Los Angeles Times and Bloomberg News reveal that Sen. Harry Reid, financial benefactor of the project, has mixed a stew of blackmail, quid pro quo and, old fashioned influence peddling, by threatening to prevent the equally ill-advised Lake Powell pipeline if Utah doesn’t surrender the water in Snake Valley. Why settle for just one disaster when you can have two?
4. The Utah team has promoted the Agreement stating it “prohibits groundwater mining.” Yet Snake Valley ranchers, expert geologists, former SNWA hydrologists and biologists know there is no excess renewable water in the West Desert. This project is the very definition of groundwater mining.
5. The Agreement’s environmental safeguards are anything but. For an area the size of Vermont, the aquifers now provide the only lifeline for plants like the greasewood, the primary reason why the West Desert is not another Sahara Desert. Air quality monitoring will reveal nothing about the impending death of the greasewood plants, until it is irreversible. The routine dust storms in Owens Valley, Australia, Uzbekistan and the Middle East are evidence that in a desert, compensatory vegetation cannot be counted on to fill the void.
6. There are urban and rural economic threats. Ask any urban Utahn whether air pollution already impairs our quality of life. Quality of life issues become economic issues affecting real estate values, hurting existing businesses and suppressing new ones. Rural agricultural, tourism, and hunting and fishing economies will be depreciated and possibly destroyed. Additionally, development of alternative energy projects such as solar thermal will be prohibited.
7. Dust storms threaten not just our quality of life but life itself. The science is unequivocal. The particles inhaled cause the same kind of disease as those from tail pipes, smoke stacks and cigarettes. Within minutes blood pressure rises, vascular inflammation and clot formation begins, followed by increased numbers of heart attacks, strokes and deep vein thrombosis. Even if dust storms are short lived, their impact can last long after they are gone. Community mortality rates increase from even short term elevations in particle pollution and stay elevated for up to 30 days after the air has cleared.
New dust storms will harm all of us a little bit, thousands of us much more, and will certainly cause premature deaths. The additional threat that this dust is contaminated with mercury, radioactivity, fungi, and asbestos-like minerals continues to be ignored.
8. Utah’s negotiating team misrepresented Utah’s legal options. Our deputy attorney general stated publicly that if Utah brought a dispute to the Supreme Court we would have to prove current damages, not potential future damages. Not true, according to at least two U.S. Supreme Court cases and our legal counsel. Enough science already exists, and more is being done, that would solidify Utah’s case. The best chance to prevent this disaster is to stop it before it starts.
9. The only winners in any agreement are a handful of real estate speculators in Nevada and Southern Utah. Everyone else loses. Utah gets no money for the water surrendered. When Snake Valley runs dry even Nevada home owners will be at risk as SNWA searches for more rural communities to exploit.
10. Utahns must stop this. Call and write the governor to tell Harry Reid and the SNWA that Utah intends to win the “War on Water Terrorists.”
Brian Moench
President, Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment
Terry Marasco
Snake Valley business owner
