“Quenching Las Vegas’s Thirst” wins Best of the West Award
Posted on | May 14, 2009 | 1 Comment
The Las Vegas Sun series “Quenching Las Vegas’s Thirst,” has won first place for Environmental and Natural Resources Reporting in the 2009 Best of the West Awards. From the announcement:
“Emily Green’s series on water was smartly conceived, deeply reported and compellingly written. Water itself isn’t a new subject; the fact of water scarcity and the political battles it causes have been reported extensively elsewhere. But Green’s series brought the issue home. Her series’ structure — profiling five figures — reinforced a key collective insight of the stories: that the state of water in and around Las Vegas is largely a function of the personalities who, over decades, made water-policy decisions.
Green avoided easy preaching, instead telling the tale of a desert metropolis’ water fight in all its moral complexity, which made for much more interesting reading. And yet she uncovered plenty of disturbing facts — particularly, in the series’ final installment, how the shifting allegiances of scientists played to the advantage of local political figures.
Through it all, Green wove in rich observations, from the physical lay of the land to the politics of the Mormon church, that made the series all the more evocative. She wrote an epic narrative for an epic tale.”
Tags: award > chance of rain > Emily Green > Quenching Las Vegas's Thirst
Comments
One Response to ““Quenching Las Vegas’s Thirst” wins Best of the West Award”
Leave a Reply
North American Native Plant Societies
After the lawn
Garden blogs
May 14th, 2009 @ 7:25 pm
Congratulations to Emily Green! From someone who had a front row seat to the near blood, sweat and tears of this endeavor.