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SALT LAKE CITY — A plan to feed a growing thirst for water in Las Vegas is running into resistance from Native American tribes in Utah and Nevada. The tribes say their input is being flat out ignored, even when it comes to possible impact on sacred sites along a 300-mile pipeline plan.
Southern Nevada Water Authority won approval in March from Nevada's state engineer to pump up to 84,000 acre-feet of water from rural areas to help quench the thirst of the Las Vegas Valley. J.C. Davis, spokesman for the water authority, has said the $3.5 billion pipeline could provide enough water for up to 168,000 average southern Nevada homes per year.
The state engineer's approval has since been challenged in court by environmental groups, local governments, Indian tribes, ranchers and others who claim the project will ensure economic and environmental doom to the rural areas.
They're making decisions on our behalf without consulting the tribes.
–Ed Naranjo, Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Indian Reservation
At a news conference Wednesday in Las Vegas, tribal leaders from Nevada, Utah, California and Arizona said they have been ignored as talks continue over the pipeline, which they claim will involve digging on Indian ancestral land in areas where ancient remains and artifacts are located.
"They're making decisions on our behalf without consulting the tribes," said Ed Naranjo, administrator of the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Indian Reservation.
A list of 15 tribes, including the Goshute and Paiute tribes in Utah, are protesting the Nevada state engineer's approval of the $3.5 billion pipeline.
It's designed to pump billions of gallons of water a year — including ground water from Utah — to provide water for Nevada homes, and water managers are ready to move forward.
You'll notice they're not saying 'we want to make sure these resources are protected' or 'we want to make sure that this doesn't happen.' They're just saying 'no;' and we don't feel that's a reasonable position.
–J.C. Davis, Southern Nevada Water Authority
"You'll notice they're not saying ‘we want to make sure these resources are protected' or ‘we want to make sure that "this" doesn't happen.' They're just saying ‘no;' and we don't feel that's a reasonable position," Davis said.
The tribes object to dismissive comments from government bureaucrats: for example, a comment made about their concerns that scores of swamp cedar trees might die from lack of water. Many tribes believe the trees grow in the very spot Indian warriors died in battle.
"One of the lawyers representing the Southern Nevada Authority compared our beliefs to a child's belief in the Bookeyman, (which is) very insulting," Naranjo said.
Southern Nevada, the state's population hub, is home to 2 million people and attracts 40 million visitors annually. Most of the region's water currently comes from the overtapped Colorado River, a source shared by seven western states and Mexico.
Officials are now awaiting required permits from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which is performing environmental reviews.
