Water plan worries Utah doctors

SALT LAKE CITY -- The Utah Medical Association says a proposed agreement to divide water from the Snake Valley aquifer with Nevada could expose the public to carcinogens, radiation and valley fever.

In a letter sent this week to Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, the association criticizes the proposal for a lack of data on potential air-quality damage and a failure to consider long-term health risks to those who live downwind.

"Should this agreement move forward in its current form, the residents, farmers and ranchers in West Desert farming communities and on the Goshute Reservation would see their health and livelihoods put at risk," says the letter, signed by Michelle McOmber, the UMA's executive vice president and CEO. "Indeed, adverse health and quality of life impacts may be spread throughout the state."

Nevada and Utah are required by Congress to reach an agreement on dividing up water from the aquifer that straddles the states' shared border. The Southern Nevada Water Authority wants to eventually start delivering rural groundwater from the aquifer to the Las Vegas area.

The Utah Medical Association is the state's largest physicians group with more than 3,500 members. It has joined the 200-member Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment in opposing the proposed deal, which was negotiated over the past four years before a draft was made public in August.