It seems like only yesterday Bob Bauer wrote an excellent article about the BLM ignoring science in regards to wild horses. And, today, here’s another example of the BLM ignoring science in regards to water in Nevada, and failing to prevent undue environmental degradation . – Debbie Coffey
SOURCE: http://greatbasinwaternetwork.org/about/index.php
NEWS RELEASE February 12, 2014
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
VEGAS PIPELINE FOES SUE FEDS
A broad coalition of citizens’ groups, Native American Tribes and rural governmental entities filed suit today in the United States District Court in Las Vegas seeking to overturn the United States Department of Interior’s decision to approve the Southern Nevada Water Authority’s Groundwater Development Project and issue a right-of-way for a nearly 265 mile-long pipeline to suck billions of gallons water away from rural areas and convey it to Las Vegas.
Fresh off their big win in Nevada state court that voided all previously granted water rights for this highly controversial project, White Pine County, Great Basin Water Network, the Goshute and Shoshone Tribes, and their allies are taking the fight to a new level, requesting that the Federal District Court of Nevada “void the validity” of the Bureau of Land Management’s Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and Record of Decision (ROD) and “suspend and enjoin any operation on the right-of-way” pending full compliance with federal environmental laws and trust obligations to the Tribal Plaintiffs.
The Plaintiffs challenge the BLM’s December 2012 Record of Decision, claiming the agency failed to take a “hard look” at the impacts of the project, failed to consider reasonable alternatives, failed to prevent unnecessary or undue environmental degradation, and failed to properly consult with and evaluate and mitigate impacts to Tribal resources.
“The federal government has failed in its trust responsibility, therefore the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation have no recourse but to file against the Department of Interior and the BLM for failure to protect our interests, which is a legal and moral obligation of the highest fiduciary standard. We cannot look the other way when the future of our people and homelands are in the hands of those who have their priorities mixed up,” said Chairwoman Madeline Greymountain of the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation.
The Swamp Cedars Massacre Site in White Pine County’s Spring Valley is an example of this failure. According to Chairwoman Greymountain, “To our people’s detriment, SNWA was awarded clearance to destroy our Tribe’s most sacred of all places, the Swamp Cedars Massacre Site. It is the location of three different massacres of our Indian ancestors, and the location of the largest recorded massacre of Indian people by the United States government in all of U.S. history. Sadly, SNWA aims to destroy this site completely, calling their destructive wake ‘succession.’ ”
Abby Johnson, President of the Great Basin Water Network, said the project would be “the biggest groundwater pumping project ever built in the United States and it would have devastating hydrological, biological and socioeconomic impacts across vast areas of eastern Nevada and Western Utah. In approving the project and the pipeline ROW, BLM ignored its own science and conclusions that the environmental impacts would be irreversible, irretrievable and widespread. That’s arbitrary and capricious decision-making,” she said.
The Plaintiffs, which also include the Sierra Club, the Central Nevada Regional Water Authority, Utah Audubon Council, Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, Utah Rivers Council, and Salt Lake League of Women Voters, argue that the BLM did an inadequate analysis of the potential for drastic impacts upon air quality downwind of the project area. The drawdown from SNWA’s proposed pumping would dry up springs, wetlands and riparian areas, and public rangelands by dropping the water table by dozens to hundreds of feet, threatening the regional economic viability of ranching and tourism, and jeopardizing senior water rights. “The future of rural communities and wildlife in the massive target zone is at stake,” said Susan Lynn of GBWN. “The $15 billion project will be exceptionally risky and costly for both rural residents and Las Vegas ratepayers.”
Simeon Herskovits, of Advocates for Community and Environment, the attorney for the groups, said, “All the scientific modeling, including SNWA’s own model, shows that the proposed groundwater pumping will have devastating effects on both existing water rights and sensitive environmental resources throughout a broad region encompassing a number of hydrologically connected valleys. The proposed mitigation plan relied on by the BLM for protection of federal resources is woefully vague and inadequate and has little to no hope of success.” Herskovits said.
“BLM’s decision was inconsistent with numerous environmental laws and federal policies, with their trust obligation to Native American Tribes, and with their own Resource Management Plan for the Ely District. Therefore, the BLM’s EIS should be invalidated by the Court.” Herskovits said.
Background
The Central Nevada Regional Water Authority is composed of representatives of eight Nevada counties: Churchill, Elko, Esmeralda, Eureka, Lander, Nye, Pershing, and White Pine.
The Center for Biological Diversity also filed suit today. CBD argues that the BLM approved the project despite acknowledging adverse impacts on wildlife in the region, including sensitive species like greater sage grouse, Moapa dace, numerous Great Basin spring snails, and four species of toads and frogs. CBD is a member of the Great Basin Water Network (contact Rob Mrowka at 702-249-5821).
Categories: Horse News
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
At least someone is doing something about this.
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The Bastards of Land-Mismanagement need to be investigated under the RICO Statutes (Organized Crime)!! Seriously!
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Thank you!
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If I lived in Vegas I would be looking for a place to mover to away from the deserts. Because when I lived in AZ the cost of water was high even 20 years ago. I considered drilling a well on my property until I found out how deep the drillers would have to go to hit a water table, between 2000 and 3000 feet not to mention the cost of buying a pump big enough to pull water from that depth. What the BLM wants to do is steal the water from the rest of the counties. They don’t care if everyone’s well gos dry which they will over time. But Vegas may end up a deserted dilapidated city without water to keep it going. If the Colorado river does not get heavy snowfall in the mountains in the winter to keep it flowing it will eventually just be a trickle of water in a ever smaller little creek.
There have been droughts in these states that have lasted hundreds of years.
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It all has be looked at with the big picture in mind. It is great some one has started to try and protect the water.
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Daryl, your comment here made me smile. Explorer John Wesley Powell did exactly this and was shot down by Congress, then died. His plan for any development of the arid western regions was carefully based on reality, and probably would have worked. Check out “Beyond the 100th Meridian” by Wallace Stegner, towards the end JWP lays out his plan. Imagining how our young nation could have grown had his vision taken hold causes me great sorrow.
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Good!!! Do not give up the fight!! The BLM is one evil agency!!
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What? The BLM did an “inadequate analysis”. No, not the BLM, the stewards of our public lands. This is something more advocates should get involved in.
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Another example of the DOI & BLM’s “I can do anything I want” attitude. And what for – in this instance – so that more water can be wasted on keeping the fountains around the casinos flowing? I sure do hope this suit is successful. The way I feel is if you want to live in the desert -then treat it like the desert. It certainly isn’t up to the “99%” to provide that for you! And it seems the 99% are expected to keep on giving, doesn’t it? This whole concept certainly applies to our wild horses & burros as well.
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Maggie, I agree! I think it’s more than the 99%, though, since it includes “the Rest of Life” as Craig Downer describes. Water removed, diverted, or altered from its original watersheds inevitably costs those downstream ecosystems, humans and everything else.
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You’re right – I just didn’t go as far as I should have in that comment. But think about it, it’s the people (or animals) without a voice that get bulldozed aside so that the corporations for government can do what they please. If I’m sounding paranoid here – well, how trusting are any of us anymore? It seems that clean air and water aren’t important enough to protect.
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peopleI’m Glad To See Something More Aggressive Happening To Benefit The People and Wildlife Affected. I’m Sick Of Seeing The Welfare Ranchers And Big Business Dictating The Law Of The Land And What Uses It Will Have. I Wish The originators Of This Suit Well as I Feel It Needs To Be Done To Bring Balance Back Into This Country. We’ve Been Long Overdue To Take This Country Back..Give It Back To Those Who Will Care for It And Not Turn It Into A Vast Industrial dump.
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I especially like this part, “claiming the agency failed to take a “hard look” at the impacts”.
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if this doesn’t prove to anyone in power to do something about the b l m , then our government is in even worse trouble then we all thought, they had better start cleaning house now .And horses were not even mentioned not one time , oh , i know why because all of these horses are in corrals .man ,was reading the news today and saw that they are going to slaughter 600 buffalo to after sending 20 buffalo to a mountain tribe . i don’t under stand theses brown noser’s that are supposed to work for te people!!!!????
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I know this sounds crazy but our whole country is surrounded by oceans. Why someone doesn’t consider building a huge pipe line from the Pacific Ocean to the DRY great salt lakes as thiswould put more water to be soaked into soil and over years this water would form more storm clouds, this would increase rain, etc. they have not found a way to make money on this or it would be in process!!!!
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Interesting thoughts, Marilyn. While we do have oceans on the east and west, the west would be the logical choice for your suggestion. I’m wondering how they would handle the ongoing radiation plume from Fukushima now circulating in the Pacific Ocean. You are right in suspecting it is not a moneymaker so not likely to gain support.
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The one with the higer power will always win.. Unfortunately the earth dosent have good lawyers to win but is when the people unite and can help and see the right and wrong from
Just a couple selfish people .. The water table is gona drop drastically at some point if kept pumping and some of the locations are suffering droughts and struggling to mantain their cattle during drought seasons already imagine later..
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Almost all of the destruction to public lands that has occurred in the last 25 years is based on human hubris and the attempt of scientifically credentialed individuals working to get our wild horses and burros off the land, so the fossil fuel industries who have profited through the “green” advocacy of these very environmental groups anti-wild horse and burro propaganda as they have worked as proxies for our federal agencies. At the same time our federal agencies appear to be joined at the hip with the United Nations Environmental Program’s alleged technical and pseudo scientific group, the International Union for the Conservation of Natue and Nature Resources (IUCN). So what I want to know is why we tax payers are paying for federal agencies that have been betraying us since the 1990’s.
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How very shortsighted. Just to feed the lavish lifestyles of those who visit Sin City? What will they do when _that_ water dries up, to the detriment of native peoples and wildlife? I stand with the lawsuit: do not allow this egregious action!
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The Big $…..
Las Vegas, NV
A DATE WITH POWER
http://www.cesweb.org/international/international-services
January 6-9, 2015
International Services
International Commerce Center (ICC)
LVCC, South Hall Connector, Room S224-S225
LVCC, South Hall Connector, Room S224-S225
The International Commerce Center offers business services exclusively for our international attendees and exhibitors. Services include private meeting rooms, reserved on a first-come, first-served basis; laptop hookups and computers with Internet access so you can stay connected to your office back home and a lounge area where you can meet casually with colleagues or rest after a busy day on the show floor. Multilingual interpreters are available to assist you as needed.
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