Legislation from 2003 had a hidden flaw-
The small oversight that threatens the valley’s big pipeline proposal. Nevada Supreme court cites a wording error in ’03 legislation. By Emily Green and Tom Gorman, Las Vegas Sun.
The seemingly unstoppable “water witch of the West” made an early mistake.
I hope it is truly dead, but Put Mulroy may have more cards up her sleeve. Pipeline not the sole option. Authority exploring other means as predictions for Lake Mead remain grim.By Stephanie Tavares. Las Vegas Sun.
As giant Lake Mead continues to dry up, and the drain-the-desert plan maybe dead, will the economic depression in Nevada keep the Las Vegas area wet?
Comments
Mulroy paid 80 million dollars to buy out ranches. Now, SNWA “show grazes” them. Mulroy runs not only cattle, but also domestic sheep over vast areas that threaten Nevada’s bighorn herds.
An article just last week said Mulroy’s ranching operations were losing huge sums. The permits span a million or more acres.
And that didn’t take into account the taxpayer subsidies that keep welfare ranching on public lands afloat.
Ely BLM is using both Clark County land sale funds and “Hazardous Fuels” funds to kill sagebrush and pinyon-juniper across the valleys that Mulroy wants to suck dry.
This whole sad episode shows what a sham public lands grazing – and also “veg “treatments” are in Nevada – where much of the public land area of the state is now grazed by permittees like the Mulroy operation – with its “falling water” brand (seriously), other water speculators/developers, and giant gold mines like Barrick, now an Asian molybdenum mine near Eureka, etc.
Want to know who is trashing sage-grouse habitat in Nevada? Look to Harry Reid’s darling Pat Mulroy and Vegas, Harry Reid’s darling gold mines, and speculators of every ilk. A tragic waste. Crooners at the Elko cowboy fest are really crooning about – essentially – being “kept” cowboys of industry.
AND if the cows and sheep went away, the watersheds would be in better shape, desertification would be halted, and there would be MORE water. Hey Pat: Get rid of the show cows and show sheep, and leave our public lands alone!
Emily Green’s Blog has a really good read on Mulroy.
http://chanceofrain.com/2010/01/there-will-be-blood/
it includes this about Helping” nature:
“By helping nature use its water more efficiently, there would be enough left over for Las Vegas!”
Does this “helping” include using Harry Reid’s SNPLMA Wild/Development Bill BLM land sale funds to pay for killing trees and sagebrush across the central valleys NV targeted for de-watering?
It’s a perfect cycle.
You get your buddy Harry Reid to dispose of BLM lands located by Vegas to promote growth and sprawl by hitching large amounts of BLM land disposal onto a Clark County Wilderness Bill.
Then you get your buddy Harry Reid to hitch pipeline corridors onto his next Wilderness/land development Bill in Lincoln County.
Meanwhile Vegas sprawls on the very BLM land that was sold off. You then find that you need more water.
So you get the oh-so-helpful Ely BLM to use the Clark land sale funds to crush, chop, chip, napalm/torch, Tebuthiuron and otherwise destroy the trees and sagebrush that are competing with you for water.
Of course, this all has the help of Bob Abbey (both as NV BLM Director while the stage was being set for the water grab and veg annihilation and after, too) and then later when he is on the Board of the ENLC – a TNC NV Cattlemen Group that has “helped” the Ely BLM plan its tree and sagebrush eradication in the areas Mulroy wants to drain – including through getting lots of funds from BLM land sales and/or tax dollars to do this all …
I walked along Las Vegas Wash today and there was a large stream of water coming from the Las Vegas and Henderson waste water plants and running into Lake Meade. It would seem that it would make sense to recycle that water and use it again and save on the pumping costs for lifting it from Lake Meade. The folks in Henderson could flush their toilets so Las Vegans get water and Las Vegans could reciprocate for Henderson water users.
Larry: If you’re in Vegas – drop in on Ms. Mulroy and ask her why she has herds of domestic “welfare” sheep grazing on BLM lands in bighorn sheep habitat.
This quest for more & more of a finite resouce is just another example of America’s “Commons” crisis. Society redoubles their effort to take more of the few (that enriches the few) while impoverishing the commons. It’s as simple as the fact that if our fresh sources of water are not infinite, which seems likely since we live on a finite planet, then at some point we will run up aganist shortages.