Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY -- The director of the Southern Nevada Water Authority says her comments about Salt Lake City were not meant as an attack against the citizens of Utah.
Earlier this week, Pat Mulroy told television station KCVB in Las Vegas, "They can't spell conservation in Salt Lake City."
She then added that she thought Utahns were blowing through water like they had won the liquid lottery.
Speaking with KSL Newsradio Thursday, Mulroy said her comments were emotionally fueled.
"Were those comments out of frustration? Absolutely," Mulroy said. "It truly was an expression of the frustration and how severe the consequences of this drought have become."
But she said her agency as also been the target of a lot of acrimony. In fact, she said workers there fielded numerous angry calls at her office Thursday, apparently in reaction to coverage of her comments.
"It has just been brutal, and at some point the pot was going to boil over," Mulroy said.
Officials in Utah and Nevada reached an agreement to share some of the water in the area, but Utah Gov. Gary Herbert has held off signing the paperwork, citing current legal action surrounding the deal.
The Southern Nevada Water Authority is currently in the process of re-applying for water rights out of the area. Numerous groups, including several Utah counties, are filing protests as part of that application process. Mulroy said that means Utahns are filing protests against water rights that are entirely in Nevada.
"That has raised this whole confrontation to a whole new level," she said.
In southern Nevada right now, Mulroy said it's a "matter of survival." She said next year's precipitation upstream from Lake Mead will determine whether the region has to make shortage designations.
Mulroy also made no apology over the claim that Utah has not done what Nevada has done when it comes to water conservation.
"To be very fair with you, they fall very short from the level of investment that we've had to make in southern Nevada," she said.
Mulroy said the proposal to pump ground water out of the Snake Valley is their best option, but not their only one. In fact, she said she's been criticized for not forcing Nevada's hand on more water rights from the Colorado River.
Ultimately, if no movement is made by the end of the year, Mulroy says she may take the entire matter to the U.S. Supreme Court.
E-mail: mgiauque@ksl.com
