Water pipeline’s politics fit for a fairy tale

To the editor:

In response to the Southern Nevada Water Authority Board of Directors moving forward with its rural pipeline project:

We all know the tale "The Emperor's New Clothes," in which the vainglorious emperor parades naked through the city in his nonexistent new clothes, the frightened citizens pretending to see and adore his clothes -- until a child with nothing to lose calls him out for being naked. Suddenly, everyone admits this truth: The clothes don't exist. Except the emperor. He keeps parading, too insecure to admit the truth.

Well, we're getting to watch a real-life example of "The Emperor's New Clothes" play out before our very eyes in the form of Pat Mulroy's proposed gigantic water pipeline: a benefit for a very few wealthy developers, an environmental and economic disaster for everyone else.

"Environmental disaster." That's what some have dubbed Ms. Mulroy's pipeline, and they're right. While Ms. Mulroy, the agency's general manager, likes to tout the Southern Nevada Water Authority's environmentalist credentials, as others have observed, she and the authority have fought tooth and nail against serious environmental studies of the pipeline's likely harmful impacts.

Meanwhile, Ms. Mulroy has bullied state and federal agencies into agreements that eschew real environmental protection and lock everyone into a "consensual" monitoring process dominated by the water authority. And Ms. Mulroy's claim that the authority is a model of conservation is belied by independent studies that show Southern Nevada falling far behind other southwestern cities like Albuquerque, N.M., and Tucson, Ariz.

Additionally, Ms. Mulroy's economic arguments for the pipeline have shifted with the winds. None of them holds water. First, it was new water for new growth, though neither would be sustainable. When that started sounding implausible, she changed her tune, insisting the pipeline was necessary just to sustain current development. But independent sources have shown that more affordable and reliable conservation measures are readily available.

Further, for 20 years the water authority has failed to provide an honest, full accounting of this enormous project's costs. That is simply unconscionable. Early on, the authority claimed the project would cost $2 billion, but an independent, fuller accounting suggested the total cost could approach $20 billion. That's insanely expensive when you consider the alternatives.

But there are no alternatives, and we're facing a catastrophic drop in the water level at Lake Mead! That's what Ms. Mulroy and her minions cry. Without the pipeline, they say, there'll be no water for fire hydrants, taps will run dry, "banks will go crazy" and you'll be living like the Bedouins in the Middle East. So, we need an "up or down" vote -- now! This is classic Mulroy hysteria and manipulation, empty scare tactics designed to foreclose informed discussion. What's the reality?

There is a long-term drought, but it affects the groundwater system she's after as much as the Colorado River; and that groundwater system actually helps supply the river. Worse still, it's Ms. Mulroy herself who largely has caused the drop in Lake Mead. Through repeated annual agreements, on which she leads, Ms. Mulroy has endorsed plans raising levels in Lake Powell while lowering levels in Lake Mead. So, Ms. Mulroy essentially has fabricated this "crisis" to intimidate folks into giving her pipeline the go-ahead.

It's time for Southern Nevadans to come to their senses and see Ms. Mulroy's pipeline and her claims of its urgent necessity "at any cost" for what they are: an empty illusion and a testament to an ego unhinged -- "The Empress's New Clothes."

DENYS M. KOYLE

BAKER

What we stand to lose

To the editor:

In response to your Thursday poll and editorial on the vote to move Southern Nevada's water pipeline project forward:

Did you ask the 52 percent of Clark County poll respondents in favor of the pipeline if they had ever been to Central Nevada to fish, hunt, go camping or otherwise just enjoy the country? My guess is they are people who have never enjoyed what central-eastern Nevada has to offer and what stands to be lost if this pipeline is built.

I have been going to the area for many years, and I have yet to see cattle walking in runoff water up to their fetlocks. Why not get some water from the wells at Coyote Springs? That development is going nowhere.

Like Lake Mead, the farmers in these valleys depend on spring runoff to keep water supplied. So what happens when they have a bad year? Will Water Authority General Manager Pat Mulroy turn off the spigot to Southern Nevada until the water is replenished?

We have had water issues here since the early '90's, and yet we still let the developers have their way. Did anyone ever take the time to figure out how much water was wasted for dust control all these years, when the air quality cops would write you a ticket for the smallest amount of dust, even if the wind was not blowing? Yes, there were days that water was needed when it was windy, but there were numerous days that it wasn't, yet they would cruise the job sites and require you to have a water truck working. The other dust-control options were way too expensive, so water was the only option.

Southern Nevada developers, the Southern Nevada Water Authority and our elected officials have created this water situation that we face, and we need to resolve it without stealing water from Central Nevada.

John Giesler

LAS VEGAS