Cecil Garland, 1925-2014
Cecil Garland, the Utah rancher whose name is synonymous with wilderness preservation throughout the Great Basin and in Montana, died Sunday of pneumonia according to an obituary issued through the Great Basin Water Network. …
Judge decrees awards of rural water for Las Vegas “arbitrary and capricious”
The Nevada judiciary once again slaps down the state engineer for "arbitrary and capricious" reasoning in its water awards to Las Vegas.Vegas water hearings
Omnibus hearings before the State Engineer of Nevada that will decide the fate of Las Vegas’s bid to tap the groundwater of four valleys in the Great Basin begin Monday, September 26th in Carson City. If you can’t be there, you can still see there. Click here for webcasts and here for a schedule of witnesses, beginning with the Southern Nevada Water Authority, then following with representatives from ranches, Utah’s Millard County, the Great Basin Water Network, the Long Now Foundation, the Church of Latter Day Saints and the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute. Expect to hear the Southern Nevada Water Authority argue that it needs rural water to keep Las Vegas the economic motor of Nevada, and protestants to dwell on the devastation that broad-scale groundwater pumping would bring the Great Basin. The hearings were ordered after previous awards for Las Vegas from Cave, Dry Lake, Delamar and Spring …
“The proper and most equitable remedy”
A typical entrance to a ranch in Spring Valley, Nevada. Yesterday's decision by the Nevada Supreme Court leaves 2007 awards of Spring Valley groundwater to Las Vegas standing, but calls for the reopening of a protest period that could usher in a powerful new generation of pipeline opponents. Photo: Emily Green
UPDATED: The Nevada Supreme Court yesterday issued a revision of a January ruling in which it again concluded that the State Engineer of Nevada violated due process rights of protestors by failing to hold timely public hearings on a plan by Las Vegas to tap rural groundwater. As remedy, the Court called for a new protest period that could refresh the ranks of pipeline opponents. However, the decision stopped short of voiding water awards already made to Las Vegas.
In 1989, the Las Vegas agency that is now part of the Southern Nevada Water Authority made sweeping applications…
Western Datebook: the Snake Valley Festival
The Snake Valley Festival in aid of the Great Basin Water Network will be held at different locations in and around Baker, Nevada from July 24-26. To set your compass, all festivities will take place in the immediate vicinity of the Great Basin National Park.
For the park, click on the starry, starry sky.
For the festival, click on the pine nuts.
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