Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
who was a laundress for brothels. After suffering a hard-knocks childhood, he conver-
ted to Mormonism, earned a law degree, and became the right-hand man to the pop-
ular governor Mike O'Callaghan. Reid was elected to the House of Representatives in
1982 and to the Senate in 1986. In 1985, Reid helped to promote Great Basin National
Park , a seventy-seven-thousand-acre preserve famous for the Lehman Caves and an-
cient stands of bristlecone pine. The park had been debated for sixty years; Nevada had
no national park, and Reid was determined to fix that. He had the support of a wide co-
alition of environmentalists and urbanites. The biggest hurdle was water. Local ranch-
ers such as Dean Baker worried that a park designation might curtail their access to
aquifers and opposed it. But when Reid gave his word that the ranchers' water supply
would be protected, they relented, and the park was signed into existence in 1986. It
was, Reid has said, one of the biggest victories of his career.
But in 2000, Harry Reid sided with Pat Mulroy in support of the SNWA pipeline. To
the people of White Pine County, this was regarded as a deep, personal betrayal. “Harry
Reid gave his word that draining down our water won't be his legacy,” Baker said in a
cold fury. “But he got himself in too deep.”
Mulroy has a starkly different view of the senator: “Harry Reid is our secret weapon.
As he's moved up in seniority in Washington, Nevada's become more respected.” Reid
has raised the SNWA's profile and helped it negotiate permission from the formerly
distrustful Department of Interior for the pipeline to cross federal lands. Mulroy has
many other influential supporters, including casino operators, developers, and politi-
cians such as Governor Jim Gibbons, who initially opposed SNWA's plan but now sup-
ports it.
Dean Baker doesn't have Mulroy's connections, but he, too, has powerful allies. They
include environmentalists, Indian tribes, and even the least chub—a tiny fish found in
only a few desert springs and which is under consideration for listing as an endangered
species. That ruling could thwart SNWA's water-siphoning plan, which could wipe out
the fish's habitat. And Dean Baker has a secret weapon of his own: the State of Utah.
The Great Basin aquifer flows from Utah into Nevada under Baker's ranch. If Las Vegas
pumps water out of Snake Valley, it could draw down the reserves of Utah ranchers,
just a few miles away. The ranchers, many of whom are wealthy, politically connected
descendants of early Mormon settlers, have not been shy in expressing their extreme
opposition to Las Vegas's pipe. The ripples of their displeasure washed all the way to
Washington, DC, where, in 2000, Congress required Nevada and Utah to enter into an
agreement before any water was exported from their shared aquifer under Snake Valley.
“Utah,” Mulroy said, has “stonewalled” Las Vegas's pipeline. But Utah's opposition
wasn't simply a principled defense of its farmers; Utah would like to build a 158-mile
Search WWH ::




Custom Search