February 12, 2008--Ranchers, conservationists oppose Las Vegas water plan (U.S. Water News)
Ranchers and conservationists teamed up recently to blast a plan to pump billions of gallons of water to Las Vegas as a "boondoggle" that will dry up a large swath of rural Nevada and over time not give the gambling mecca the water it wants. The critics were among dozens of people -- mostly project opponents -- at public comment sessions in Las Vegas, Carson City, Ely and Caliente on the Southern Nevada Water Authority plan to draw more than 11.3 billion gallons of water yearly from Delamar, Dry Lake and Cave valleys. Several speakers asked why SNWA wasn't working on more conservation efforts or piping in water from the Pacific Ocean, some 230 miles to the west, to Las Vegas for desalinization rather than what could be diminishing rural Nevada groundwater through a 200-mile-long pipeline.
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