Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
WATER POWER
State engineers like Jason King in Nevada, who decides whether
Las Vegas gets its water; Pat Mulroy in Las Vegas, whose quest for
more water for her city is legendary; and Ed Archuleta in El Paso,
Texas, a leader in making water conservation work, are all exam-
ples of the water elite. Plenty of other state engineers and directors
of resource departments, along with heads of municipal utilities
and watershed and water-management districts, also qualify for
membership in the water power elite.
Ted Turner may be another water power to watch. Environmental-
ist, rancher, and the founder of CNN (Cable News Network), Turner
also is the largest private landowner in the country, with about
2 million acres in holdings—and holds massive water rights associated
with his land. Turner is a visionary (consider his quest decades ago to
create a 24-hour cable news channel). Though he's made light of it in
interviews, talk abounds that he's buying land in part for water rights
and eventually will have signifi cant water holdings. In February 2008,
he told a reporter at the Omaha World-Herald that he didn't intend to
sell any water rights to anyone. Time, of course, will tell.
Public water suppliers can also be part of the water elite. In
Massachusetts, for example, they have a lot of power and exercise
undue infl uence, says Kerry Mackin, who heads up the comparatively
small Ipswich River Watershed Association that we talked about in
Chapter 2. Mackin points out that the Massachusetts Department of
Environmental Protection (MassDEP), the state's regulatory agency,
has acknowledged that it treats water suppliers' interests as a higher
priority than protection of the environment. The state's water
resources behemoth, the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority,
which serves metropolitan Boston and has a big infl uence on state
water policy, might be considered the area's water god.
Other individuals and groups that wield control and power over
water across the country include some water lawyers and analysts.
Historical Precedent
The concept of individuals or powerful groups controlling our
water isn't a new phenomenon. “What people need to realize is
this practice has been going on for a long time,” says Colorado and
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