Extended Interview

Ken Hill Teacher Aide Partoun, Utah   Read more extended interviews.

This interview has not been edited for content.

Ken Hill:  I don't think it's a very good idea to take water from… like somebody said, "This is the driest valley and the second driest state in the union."  To think there is a lot of water here is ridiculous.  There are a lot of options like desalinization that have not been considered very well, I don't think so.  I think they've got better options.  It basically scares me to death to think that they're going to lower the water table and if that happens that would pretty much make life miserable.  I don't trust them because they have a lot of powerful people who figure they need to have growth in Las Vegas and between the developers and the gaming corporations and politicians, SNWA seems to have a lot of backing and power in this and we just get the feeling that we're getting steamrolled by something that is out of control and uncontrollable.  This is probably better than in the days that Owens Valley was raped but it still seems like going into this that if the science is there and they can somehow convince the BLM to go ahead and approve this project, the project is so expensive that it's going to take them seventy-five years to pay off the bonds.  They're thinking that the first review of this will be seventy-five years from now or from when the pumps start.  That seems like an awful long time and once that water is in that pipe and that money needs to be paid back, it's going to be awfully hard to stop it.  There obviously are a lot more people in Las Vegas than here and I have a personal preference that I don't want to see this area be destroyed even though there are just a few people and frankly I think a lot of that development down there is out of control.  If they would just be able to somehow control themselves then it wouldn't be as near as desperate a situation for them.  In this particular case I'd like to see them look elsewhere for water.  I think that would solve their problem.  But I would also like to see the science be investigated so they understand the aquifers better because this is not going to be the only time that the cities start looking for water and I'm afraid we're going to be a target continuously.  Even Las Vegas will come looking for more water so I would like to see them find alternatives, but I'd also like to see the people understand what the science is around here.