Governments take on water transfer

The Goshute and Shoshone tribes, White Pine County, Great Basin Water Network and other organizations have sued the U.S. Interior Department to reverse its approval of the Southern Nevada effort to take water from eastern Nevada and western Utah, and to overturn DOI permitting for a 265-mile pipeline to carry the water away.

“We cannot look the other way when the future of our people and homelands are in the hands of those who have their priorities mixed up,” said Confederated Tribes of the Goshute chair Madeline Greymountain in a prepared statement. She said the Southern Nevada Water Authority, as part of the water project, intends to totally destroy the Swamp Cedars massacre site, where attacks on tribes occurred in 1863 and 1897, a site that is hallowed by the Goshute.

The lawsuit comes on the heels of a decision by state court Judge Robert Estes overturning approval of the water project by State Engineer Jason King. Estes called King's decision “subjective, unscientific, arbitrary and capricious” (“Water grab fails court test,” RN&R, Dec. 26).