Posted on 02/23/2008 4:49:44 PM PST by americanophile
PALM SPRINGS - The flamboyant mayor of Las Vegas may have opened up a multistate water war last week, when he said "no one is going to allow us to go dry" and vowed to go after Southern California's water, it was reported today.
Mayor Oscar Goodman's comments come as officials from Wyoming to Mexico contemplate the prospect of a shriveling Colorado River, where global climate changes might dry up much of the vast water supply for people from Tucson to Tijuana, and Denver to Los Angeles.
Goodman reportedly said last week that farmers in California "will have their fields go fallow before our spigots run dry." Those comments were made last Thursday, when the Las Vegas mayor was asked for comment about a new climate study that predicts such diminished flows in the Colorado River that Lake Mead and Lake Powell will be sucked dry.
"We'll see you at the battlefront," Goodman was quoted as saying by the Desert Sun newspaper of Palm Springs.
Battles over Colorado River supplies are not new. In 1934, Arizona's governor sent the state's National Guard to the Colorado River to prevent Los Angeles from building Parker Dam, and removed the troops only after a federal court ordered an end to hostilities.
In California, Coachella Valley Water District general manager Steve Robbins called the latest Las Vegas threats "ridiculous and inflammatory."
The Imperial Irrigation District views the Nevada threats as "the latest in a series of salvos directed at the farms and fields of the Imperial Valley," said spokesman Kevin Kelley.
University of Utah law professor Robert Adler told the Desert Sun that the Vegas mayor's comments may be a "kind of political statement, rather than a statement based on legal rights."
Farms in the Coachella and Imperial valleys are called the breadbasket of the southwest, and crops and animals grown there feed much of the country, including Las Vegas, farmers say. Surplus water from the desert is already in the process of being acquired by San Diego and other coastal cities.
Farms in California get 11 times more water than Las Vegas is allocated under a multistate agreement brokered by Congress in 1922. A new revision of the Colorado River Compact has been negotiated by the federal government and water users, to accommodate urban growth and decreased water supplies.
Well not exactly, it was over a meat supply contract to the US govt....:^)
http://www.legendsofamerica.com/NM-LincolnCountyWar.html
..and boiled down to a war between an Irish and an English store owner... nothing new under the sun...:^)
Was just in Lincoln, NM last summer...:^)
Why should I choose my words? That’s a condescending statement to say the least.
Mayor Oscar Goodman=Stupid North East Lib
NO more calls, please.
We have a winner!
Why not just let who owns the rights sell the water to the highest bidder at a free-market price?
The side benefit is that lettuce farming in the desert might diminish, and we ended up buying lettuce grown in Mexico—so we won’t “need” to have the illegals come here to pick it.
My bad for not making clear that this was in jest, just pointing out our good Mayor's past mob ties......
Sorry.
...but who “owns” the river?? That’s the whole point, and precisely why we have a federally brokered water compact.
...but who owns the river?? Thats the whole point, and precisely why we have a federally brokered water compact.
Mac, it was clear that you were speaking in jest. No reason to apologize.
The result could be the abandonment of one the most important agricultural regions in the U.S. - the Imperial Valley, which relies almost totally on river water.
Whoever values the water more will have it, and there will never be a “shortage,” just higher prices.
Maybe the Bellagio will continue its fountains, but many LV homeowners will replace their lawns to avoid $500/mo water bills.
It’s all about Basic Economics.
Good point.
Another point that I wanted to make in my earlier post but forget to...
Another reason that California needs to start taking water out the Pacific Ocean is that action will lower the ocean levels, world wide, right? (oh man, that will drive the eco-nazi's bonkers!).
But that is actually doing the world a huge favor. By lowering the ocean level's, we are making room for the extra water from all those melting glaciers, right?
No more worry about flooding the low lying errors across the globe. Problem solved.
Now, I just need AlGore to sign off on it........
I don’t necessarily disagree with you, I’m just playing Devil’s advocate:
What about lost jobs, etc., when the Valley reverts to desert? What about the national security arguments of outsourcing our food production? What about the health concerns of having 3rd world nations without health and safety codes growing our food?
The State water engineer is still in their way....for a while.
>>What about lost jobs, etc., when the Valley reverts to desert?
Better than the alternative of communities without water they would pay more for to survive.
>>What about the national security arguments of outsourcing our food production?
There’s plenty of land for food to sustain the population, and I think we’ll do fine if there were a lettuce embargo.
>What about the health concerns of having 3rd world nations without health and safety codes growing our food?
Inspections, of course. It’s not as if we don’t already import plenty of food from Mexico and Central America.
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