Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
locals even shut off water to Los Angeles for a time. Nevertheless,
Mulholland got his way, and Los Angeles got its water, at the
expense of what became a dusty Owens Valley. “As water lawyers will
tell you, water runs uphill to money,” says Steve Mumme.
Showdown in Nevada
Fast-forward to today. One of the biggest contemporary David versus
Goliath water wars pits Snake Valley, Utah, against the Southern
Nevada Water Authority (Las Vegas). The battle has brewed for years
and could continue to brew for years more in the legal arena under
the jurisdiction of Nevada's state engineer. The Southern Nevada
Water Authority requested 52,000 acre-feet of water—about 17 bil-
lion gallons of water a year—from the Snake Valley, which straddles
Nevada and Utah. Tracy Taylor, then Nevada state engineer, was
set to hear arguments in the case in fall 2009, but that was delayed
until fall 2011. The two sides sat down to hammer out a water-
sharing agreement outside of the courts. Then the Nevada Supreme
Court in 2010 tossed out some of SNWA's claims to water rights.
Meanwhile, Nevada's new state engineer, Jason King, has laid out
a timeline to reconsider the rights. There's even a web site devoted
to developments in the fray (http://water.nv.gov/hearings/water-
hearing/SpringDryCaveDelamar/index.html).
The battle for this “clear gold” amid an arid, thirsty West is con-
tentious to say the least. “By far the greater amount of current use
of the water is in Utah, while most recharge occurs in Nevada,”
says Hugh Hurlow, senior geologist for the Utah Geological Survey
and a scientifi c adviser to the negotiations between the two parties.
Because the applications to appropriate the water are in Nevada,
it's the Nevada water engineer's decision even though the water
runs off to supply the Utah side of Snake Valley.
“There is a certain amount of developable groundwater that
could be taken out of the basin without a disastrous impact on the
local economy,” says Hurlow. “However, I doubt that it is as much as
southern Nevada would really want out of the project.”
As a scientist, Hurlow has spent the last few years study-
ing the area's groundwater and geology, and how the proposed
withdrawal might affect the groundwater fl ow. “Technically, the
