I remember the first Earth Day in 1970. At the College of William and Mary in Virginia, I helped build a dam. Nice, huh? Actually, it was to prevent the pollution of a stream and lake from sediment produced by construction. It did annoy some of my geology major colleagues who wanted to study delta formation in Lake Matoaka.
It's been all downhill since then.
What an appropriate post for Earth Day - Las Vegas and water! That was on Earth Day 2007.
Here is what I wrote:
On 16 April 2007, Nevada State Engineer Tracy Taylor announced that the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA), which supplies water to the Las Vegas (southern Nevada) area, will get to pump only 40,000 AF (acre-feet) annually, instead of the 91,000 AF it had requested, from Spring Valley, which is in White Pine County near the Utah border.
A pdf map of Nevada's hydrographic basins can be dowloaded below. Spring Valley is #184, in the east-central part of the state. Las Vegas Valley is #212 in the southern part of the state.
Here is a map of Nevada's hydrographic regions. Spring Valley is in the eastern portion of the Central Region (#10).
According to a 16 April 2007 article in the Nevada Appeal, Taylor said that after the initial 10-year pumping period, the SNWA can pump an additional 20,000 AF/year, provided monitoring has not indicated any adverse impacts.
Taylor also said that the SNWA's pumps will have to be turned off if existing wells and water rights are adversely affected. Critics wondered whether Taylor would really turn off the pumps.
Some wondered whether this reduced allotment would still make for a cost-effective plan.
The SNWA receives Nevada's entire annual allotment of 300,000 AF from the Colorado River and has maintained that further growth in the Las Vegas area beyond about 2014 will require additional supplies. It does not appear likely that the other Colorado River Compact states (CA, AZ, NM, UT, WY, and CO) will provide any more water to Nevada. SNWA General Manager Patricia Mulroy has lobbied unsuccessfully for a change in the compact to allot more water to Nevada. In 1922, when the seven basin states divided the Colorado's water, who could have imagined that there would be about 1.5 million people in southern Nevada in 2007.
The SNWA already owns rights to 10,000 AF per year in Spring Valley, and so with the additional water rights granted by the State Engineer, reuse and recyling, the SNWA expects that they will be able to provide an additional 120,000 AF annually to the Las Vegas Valley. Deliveries are expected no earlier than 2014.
Here is a pdf of the State Engineer's ruling:
HAPPY EARTH DAY!
Best I could do for Earth Day #54. Wait''ll next year!
"Deep flowing Oceanus, from which flow all rivers and every sea and all springs and deep wells." - The Illiad
Comments