LETTER: Stop punishing residential water users in Clark County
Enough already. As if it isn’t enough to limit the size of home pools, but not those of resorts and other commercial operations. As if adopting a tiered water rate structure that targets homes but exempts businesses is acceptable. Now the Southern Nevada Water Authority cartel is pushing Assembly Bill 220, which would limit how much water homes will be allowed to use (Wednesday Review-Journal). The bill doesn’t include businesses.
Bill sponsor Assemblyman Howard Watts feigns shock saying, “We’re repeatedly surprised by how quickly the situation on the river has degraded.” Where has he been the past 23 years?
Instead of kicking the can down the road, Nevada should show leadership with the other basin states and the Bureau of Reclamation and look at augmenting river flows to meet demand. Take a page from the Eisenhower administration’s playbook in post World War II that created the U.S. highway system. We ought to be exploring ways to connect the major river systems in this country to protect the 40 million people and untold trillion-dollar economy generated in the Southwest. For starters, study the 1960s Parsons engineering proposal for viable alternatives.
AB220 must be defeated as unsound and unnecessary social engineering. Write to the governor urging him to veto this inequitable bill should it make it to his desk.
