Las Vegas seeks faraway rural water -- yea, even unto Utah -- to slake thirst of explosive growth

Howard Berkes of National Public Radio reports from Callao, Utah, "50 dusty miles from a paved road, 90 miles from a gas station or grocery store, and about 300 miles from Las Vegas," that people there are worried "distant and urban Las Vegas threatens the springs and wells that make ranching possible in Callao, and in thousands of square miles of high desert valleys between Callao and Las Vegas." (Berkes photo shows alfalfa being harvested in Callao)

Las Vegas water officials have "lusted after groundwater beneath rural valleys to the north for more than 15 years," Berkes reports. "It may be the easiest to access, given significant political and technological problems with other plans. So, they've applied for water rights in seven sparsely-populated valleys." The Southern Nevada Water Authority ultimately has its tongue out for 65 billion gallons of water each year, to be delivered by a pipeline costing over $2 billion. The agency "is not seeking access to water already used by ranchers and farmers, except in the case of five ranches it has purchased outright for their water rights," Berkes reports. "But, there's deep concern in the rural valleys that any drilling and pumping of water for Las Vegas will stem or stop the flow to existing wells and springs used by wildlife, livestock and crops."

The state engineer "has awarded southern Nevada about one-fifth of the water it sought," Berkes reports, "but only conditionally. The underground water system must be studied first, and then pumped and monitored closely for 10 years. If other wells and springs begin to lose water, pumping for Las Vegas could be curtailed." Berkes' report is the first of a two-day package. To read or hear it, click here.

Berkes dredged up a 1991 NPR interview with the authority's water czar, Patricia Mulroy, in which she said, "Ninety per cent of Nevada's water goes to agriculture and generates 6,000 jobs, which is less than the Mirage Hotel generates. The West was settled by the federal government as an agrarian economy (but) it isn't that anymore. . . . The West is becoming an urban area." For counterpoint, Berkes has rancher Cecil Garland: "What Las Vegas has got to learn is that there are limits to its growth. . . . Gluttony, glitter, girls and gambling are what [Las Vegas] is all about. What it's all about here [in Callao] is children, cattle, country and church." Then Garland raises a fundamental question. "Would it be crops or craps that we use our water for?"