March 26, 2013
Is Gov. Herbert About to Unleash Utah’s Greatest Environmental Disaster?
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Dear UPHE Members and Supporters,
Utah suffered the nation’s worst air pollution for much of this past winter. Even during an average year most of the largest cities in Utah rank in the top ten worst cities in the country for acute spikes in air pollution. Over 200 physicians and health care professionals signed a letter asking Governor Herbert to declare our air pollution a public health emergency. Nonetheless, Utah’s Governor and Legislature finished the legislative session without passing any meaningful air pollution bills.
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Indeed, Governor Herbert will make a decision by April 1st on whether our air pollution will get even worse.
On his desk sits the Las Vegas/Snake Valley Water Pipeline agreement. If he signs, he will set in motion what is likely the worst ecological disaster in Utah’s history. His closest advisor has been publicly advising him to sign. He seems poised to do so, unless massive citizen opposition is mounted.
We intend to do exactly that. Here is the back story: |
Many years ago Las Vegas decided to push for growth they knew could not be sustained with the water available to them. As reported in the Las Vegas Sun, the Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg News, and Channel 8 TV Las Vegas News, “Sin City” crafted a deliberate strategy to grow beyond their Colorado River water allowance, gambling that they could force neighboring states and/or other parts of Nevada into giving up their water. The centerpiece of that strategy is a $15 billion dollar “straw” to drain the ancient aquifers under Central Nevada and Western Utah and ship the water to their suburbs, fountains, and golf courses.
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| Owens Valley Dust Storm. Utah can expect the same thing to blow over the Wasatch Front if Herbert signs on to the Water Grab. |
It turns out that farmers, ranchers and Goshute Native Americans bravely making a living in the desert of the Northern Great Basin must survive on the same water that Las Vegas intends to plunder for economic growth. The wildlife and native vegetation also need that water to survive. If they disappear the West Desert will be transformed into the Sahara Desert, a source of eternal, choking, deadly dust storms. And that is exactly what has happened after water diversion projects in Owens Valley, CA and the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan. Scientists not employed by the prospective pipeline’s owner, the Southern Nevada Water Authority, have warned that an area the size of the state of Vermont would be denuded of native vegetation, the water table will drop hundreds of feet, springs will dry up, the greasewood plant--the critical anchor for keeping desert surface soil intact--would be sacrificed, rural communities would be devastated, and massive regional dust storms would ensue and never stop.
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| Dust storm in Milford, Utah. |
One of the main aquifers that Las Vegas wants lies under Snake Valley which straddles the Utah/Nevada border. Nevada must have Utah’s permission to start siphoning that water to Las Vegas. It is that permission that sits on Gov. Herbert’s desk. It is that permission that Utah citizens must make sure is never granted! |
We are organizing a “phone in march” on the Governor’s office.
Call Gov. Herbert’s office every day
between now and April 1, (801 538-1000).
Tell him he does not have your permission to smother us
with dust from the West Desert.
Utahns are not willing to suffer for Las Vegas!
Get five of your friends and family to do the same.
We need 5,000 calls made by Friday.
To learn more, come to our free screening of “Desert Wars: Water and the West., Thursday, March 28th, at 7:00 pm, Hawk Watch International, 2240 So. 900 E. Salt Lake City.
Save Utah, Stop the Water Grab!
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| Giant Dust Storms. This is what will happen if Herbert signs the Snake River water grab. If you think the inversions in SLC are bad, here is what's coming . . . and it's even worse. |
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