Extended Interview

Don Duff Aquatic Ecologist President, Great Basin Chapter of Trout Unlimited   Read more extended interviews.

This interview has not been edited for content.

Interviewer:   What are your biggest fears about the ground water pumping of this deep carbonic aquifer.

Don Duff:  My greatest fears of this pumping of the deep ground water aquifers is that it could affect the surface water of the Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge as well as Springs and Snake Valley and possibly also headwater perennial streams in the deep creeks to the south Snake Range.  As I understand it for the ground water pumping, Southern Nevada Water Authority wants to put in hundreds of miles of pipelines and come into Southern Snake Valley and Spring Valley and put hundreds of deeps water wells in and this, I feel, would affect the hydrology of the local springs in the valley as well as springs along the bench lands and mountains and this is based on my experience out here as a Federal Aquatic Ecologist for the last forty years working out here so I think it is my professional opinion and I believe there will be some impacts.  There are federal laws and regulations that pertain to protection of wetlands and threatening endangered species and while they say that they will provide some mitigation for these particular things, I don't really trust them.  I think despite all of the regulations there is going to be impact on these springs and native aquatic fauna from the Spotted Frog, the Bonneville Cutthroat and so I think that while the federal regulations and laws and state laws are in place, there are ways to get around that and go along with the project but there still will be some impacts that will be unmitigatable.  They say there might be some surplus water but I don't believe there is surplus water.  We've been in a drought for the last eight years here and the valley residents in South and North Snake Valley have been using the water resources for the last thirty or forty years and there have been some impacts already on depletion of wells and springs in the area so there is no surplus water that we feel exists here.  There is water to maintain the livelihood and existence of these residents, but certainly not enough water to sustain the population of Las Vegas or the proposed future of Las Vegas. 

Interviewer:   Should a metropolitan city like Las Vegas or really any cities of the West who are growing so rapidly… what should they do for resources?  What would you like to see them do?

Don Duff:  There are a lot of cities in the west that are growing urban populations like Las Vegas and they need to manage their water and manage their land for the amount of population and if it needs to be population or growth-limited, they need to take that into consideration and plan their water resources accordingly.  To come out of Las Vegas and come hundreds of miles to the north and impact other people's water and the resources associated with it, I don't think is right and there are case studies in the West, take Tucson, Arizona with the ground water pumping and down there with the urban expansion, the Santa Cruz River has gone dry and some of the perennial streams have gone dry and they just need to limit their growth and have the water available or not grow.

Interviewer:   Where should those resources come from?

Don Duff:  The cities in the West are growing at an unparalleled rate and I think they ought to take into consideration the resources in their area, the water resources in their area and not come hundreds of miles to other areas to take water from other people and maybe place a risk against the livelihood of the other folks in the other areas so they need to limit their growth.  The fact that Las Vegas has sixty golf courses and a 300-acre lake, it takes a lot of water to do that and they need to limit their growth and population base and have the water for those people but not come north or south or get water from other areas.

Interviewer:   Is this a water grab?

Don Duff:  I believe this proposal by the Southern Nevada Water Authority is a water- grab--to come up there I don't think they're efficiently or effectively managing the water resources.  As far as their hydrology in Las Vegas, the planning that is going on for this, I think they're using outmoded data for their projections of the water that they believe they can get and they should have.  The data I believe they are using is quite a number of years old and I think they need to have better science.  The U.S. Geological Survey will be doing some ground water studies and I think we need to wait and see what the projections are from those studies before we even allow this project to go any further.

Interviewer:   Lets go back and talk about how you think this is part of that.

Don Duff:  The proposal for a so-called water grab I believe is true.  I think it's a water grab similar to Owens Valley, Mono Lake and the situation in Los Angeles and I think it's very similar to what Las Vegas is proposing to get water out of the basin to come into their area and by doing so they would limit the livelihood of other people and other resources where they are going to take water, so yes I believe it's a water grab.  There are a lot of folks who say the water would be better used socially for large populations and people in Las Vegas but on the other hand I would say that the water is valuable for the people who live in this area and whether there is a fraction of the amount of population here as in Las Vegas, these people have a right to live, they have a right to their resources and water and Las Vegas should take that into consideration and use only the water that is in their area for their projected growth.  For the future I think that water is still going to be a big item and concern in the West and I think Las Vegas is going to have to come up with other proposals to get water, whether it's from the Colorado river system or desalinization plants in the ocean, which are being proposed by the way in Los Angeles, Southern California and over in London, England.  So I think there is a lot of technology that needs to be looked at before they just come in and try taking water from other residents. 

Don Duff:  Behind me we're looking at the Deep Creek Mountain Range, which peaks over 12,000 feet.  In 1972 we discovered two populations of thought to be extinct relic Bonneville Cutthroat trout and since then we've repopulated the range with seven streams on the east side and seven on the west side on the Goshute Reservation on Deep Creek Valley and these streams and waters have the potential to be in peril by the Southern Nevada Water project from the ground water pumping and the carbonic aquifer here in Snake Valley behind me.  It has the potential to lower the head-water springs and lower the streams, impact the recharge rate of the aquifer and so it has the potential to imperil these fish and possibly put them back on the endangered species list.  They had been petitioned for listing but they were taken off because of the work we had been doing so the water project could imperil them and place them at risk for a future listing under the Endangered Species Act.