Thursday, May 24 2012 5:14PM
Despite tribal input and potential effects on the rural communities' water supply, the federal government will likely approve a 300-mile pipeline project that will pump water from rural areas in Nevada and Utah.
Despite tribal input and potential effects on the rural communities' water supply, the federal government will likely approve a 300-mile pipeline project that will pump water from rural areas in Nevada and Utah.
Tribal leaders from Nevada, Utah, California and Arizona say they have been ignored after showing concern for the pipelines placement. Along with pumping millions of gallons of water out of their communities, digging will be done on ancestral land where sacred artifacts are located.
The Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) won approval back in March from the state's engineer to pump nearly 84,000 acre-feet of water from rural areas and redirect them to residents living in the Las Vegas Valley. Officials are reportedly waiting for permits from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management who may be looking at the project's effect on the environment.
"If the SNWA is allowed to build this pipeline and pump water from our lands, it will destroy us," said Rupter Steele, former chairman of the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation. "We are talking about water here. All life needs water - even Indians."
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KRBD