Disaster

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, following a request from Gov. Gibbons, declared rural Nevada a "disaster area" because of crushing drought. This is the same area targeted for defoliation by the developers and their lackeys at the Southern Nevada Water Authority.
Which reminds us of a couple of things: Despite many millions the SNWA has spent trying to cleanse East Central Nevada of farmers and ranchers, agriculture is still important in this state. And, golly, it just doesn't seem like there's a lot of that "unused, renewable" water that Mrs. Mulroy keeps talking about on the teevees.
Finally, the disaster declaration raises the question of how the federal and state authorities would respond once the inevitable environmental consequences of the proposed Water Grab start to bite. Can you declare a disaster based on governmental policy?
Well, actually, I guess you can. Certainly our friends in New Orleans have some experience with that.

December 5, 2007

NEVADA RECEIVES SECRETARIAL DISASTER DESIGNATION FROM U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Nevada's request for a Secretarial Disaster Designation from the U.S. Department of Agriculture has been granted for the entire state of Nevada.
On Oct. 16, Gov. Jim Gibbons and the Nevada State Department of Agriculture sent a letter to Acting Secretary for the USDA Charles F.Conner, requesting federal assistance for the State of Nevada due to losses caused by drought and wildfires.
"This year's drought resulted in the loss of close to 1 million acres of grazing land for our ranching communities," said Gibbons in a press release today. "I am pleased that the USDA recognized the devastating impact that this year's drought and wildfires had on so many of Nevada's rural economies."

(Thanks to JB for the heads-up.)

Bouphonia: Arid Wastelands

Bouphonia: Arid Wastelands

Great blog post!

Thanks to my friend Steve Rypka for passing along this well-written analysis of the recent NYTimes story on growth, the sale of public lands and the voracious appetite of the Southern Nevada Water Authority to destroy the Great Basin.

http://bouphonia.blogspot.com/2007/12/arid-wastelands.html

"In other words, they’re selling land that belongs to all Americans in order to support unwise local development, the primary effect of which will be to increase Las Vegas’s already staggering demand for “cheap” regional water. To suggest that they have no right to do this is to reveal yourself as a collectivist of the worst sort…the type of person, in other words, who doesn’t understand the dignity and sense of self-worth that come with being self-reliant. "

Hell no, we won't glow

My friend Judy Treichel is featured in a pair of stories from my former colleague at the Las Vegas Sun, Lisa Mascaro. Judy has been one of the valiant warriors waging a peaceful and effective fight against the government-industrial effort to stick 160 million pounds of highly radioactive waste in our community’s backyard.
Judy, the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (which I work for), the Sierra Club and other organizations of progressives, conservationists and people who give a damn are looking at two meetings this week that have big implications for the Yucca Mountain dump battle. The first meeting, Monday night at Cashman, will be part of the environmental review of the almost comically foolish plans to truck the lethal waste through Central Nevada. The second, Wednesday morning, is a step in the deliberately arcane and complex process of approving the license to stick the waste here. For more information on both meetings, the Nevada Conservation League has details here.