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Water:
Dividing Groundwater with Another State

Our Position: support
Bill Number: hb422s3
Sponsor: Rep Jackie Biskupski (D-Salt Lake City)
Legislative Session: 2007 General Session

Status

Action Needed

Third Substitute House Bill 422 (HB422S3) got a late start so it needs momentum to roll through the senate.  It passed in committee by 14-0-1 and the whole house on a vote of 64-0-11.  Please use the link below to contact your senator individually, or call the senate on the main phone line, 801/538-1035.  Members of the Senate Rules Committee (listed below) are especially important to call.

Sen. John W. Hickman, Chair
Sen. Gregory S. Bell
Sen. D. Chris Buttars
Sen. Gene Davis
Sen. Peter C. Knudson
Sen. Ed Mayne
Sen. Darin G. Peterson

The groundwater that lies underneath the Utah-Nevada border--sometimes called the Carbonate Aquifer--has been accumulating for tens of thousands of years.  This water is the lifeblood for humans making a living from agriculture on both sides of the border and for wildlife that are nourished by springs, seeps and in some cases impressive wetlands complexes.  We need to take the time to conclude an agreement that is fair to both parties and ensures that, should extensive infrastructure for exporting groundwater from the Nevada side to Las Vegas be built, that export will not continue if it harms human or natural needs in the local area.

Members of the advisory committee would include elected officials from all the counties on the Utah side that lie atop the groundwater as well as a water rights holder among others.

More information

Find out more about the Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge--a natural oasis fed by Carbonate Aquifer groundwater in Utah's West Desert.  To read the text of the bill.  Find out who your senator is with the district maps.

Contact

Background

The Sierra Club opposes interstate and interbasin water transfers.  Conclusion of this agreement will almost certainly lead to rapid transfer of Nevada's share of the water from the human and natural needs in White Pine and Lincoln Counties south to feed the growing metropolitan area of Las Vegas, but it could also lead to various schemes to tap the water for urban uses along the Wasatch Front in Utah.

All resources are finite, but water in particular is a precious one in the West.  Utah's Snake Valley and the Spring Valley in Nevada live in a delicately-poised equilibrium with their existing water resources.  Agriculture has, in most years, not withdrawn so much water that it has adversely affected natural wonders like the amazing oasis at Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge (shown above).  But the recent extended drought has dried up some springs. 

There really is not excess water here for export to urban areas.  Unfortunately politicians on both sides of the state border are rushing to conclude an agreement before we even have adequate scientific studies of the extent of the aquifer, how much water it really contains, how well it would hold up to extensive pumping, etc.