Springs, streams and creeks like these could become fewer and farther-in-between if AB30 and AB51 pass. Credit: Brian Beffort

YOU CAN HELP stop State lawmakers from enabling the largest transfer of groundwater in Nevada history. On Wednesday February 27, at 4 PM, the Assembly’s Natural Resource Committee will hold a hearing on two dangerous bills, AB30 and AB51, which will facilitate the Las Vegas Pipeline and Water Grab.

The bills will undermine Nevada water law and aid the Southern Nevada Water Authority in its effort to pump 58 billion gallons of water annually from Eastern Nevada and send it to Las Vegas via a 300-mile, $15.5 billion pipeline. The bills will threaten Nevadan’s due-process rights and their rights under the Constitution’s Takings Clause. The bills will empower deep-pocketed interests, and endanger our scarce water resources, wildlife and wild places.

Four ways you can oppose these dangerous proposals:

1. Click here to contact members of the Assembly Natural Resources Committee before the hearing Wednesday;
2. Attend the Assembly Natural Resource Committee hearing in person. Wednesday, February 27, 4pm, in Nevada Legislature Room 3138 (a live-stream is also available from the Grant Sawyer Building in Las Vegas). You don’t need to speak; just signing in as "opposed" sends a powerful statement. We'll be there with you!
3. Click to submit your opposition to the bills on the Legislature’s website. Feel free to use the talking points on this page;
4. Contact the Assembly Committee members directly with your opposition and concerns:

Assemblywoman Swank (chair): (775) 684-8595, Heidi.Swank@asm.state.nv.us
Assemblywoman Cohen: (775) 684-8855, Lesley.Cohen@asm.state.nv.us
Assemblywoman Carlton: (775) 684-8597, Maggie.Carlton@asm.state.nv.us
Assemblyman Assefa: (775) 684-8803, Alex.Assefa@asm.state.nv.us
Assemblyman Fumo: (775) 684-8839, Ozzie.Fumo@asm.state.nv.us
Assemblywoman Bilbray-Axelrod: (775) 684-8847, Shannon.BilbrayAxelRod@asm.state.nv.us
Assemblywoman Peters: (775) 684-8559, Sarah.Peters@asm.state.nv.us
Assemblyman Watts: (775) 684-8835, Howard.Watts@asm.state.nv.us
Assemblywoman Titus: (775) 684-8507, Robin.Titus@asm.state.nv.us
Assemblyman Wheeler: (775) 684-8843, Jim.Wheeler@asm.state.nv.us
Assemblyman Ellison: (775) 684-8831, John.Ellison@asm.state.nv.us
Assemblywoman Hansen: (775) 684-8851, Alexis.Hansen@asm.state.nv.us

Tell them to stop the pipeline! According to the BLM, SNWA’s plan will destroy 305 springs, 112 miles of streams, 8,000 acres of wetlands, and 191,000 acres of shrubland habitat in the heart of the Great Basin.

AB30: It gives the Nevada State Engineer unfettered discretion to approve Monitoring, Management, and Mitigation plans (3M) that will all but guarantee the continued over-appropriation of our limited groundwater resources. The bill does not offer long-term due process rights*(see how below) for water users and environmental advocates, ignores climate change, and pushes unsound and scientifically dangerous water permitting schemes that favor deep-pocketed interests over conservation.

AB51: The bill upends the tenets of Western water law by undermining the Prior Appropriations doctrine and violating the U.S. Constitution’s Taking’s Clause*(see below). The bill will attack Nevadans’ property rights (water rights are property rights), incentivize monetary payoffs to approve water permits, and validate unsound mitigation schemes in order to compensate those whose property is being taken –– all of which threaten the public interest, the rule of law, and our environment.

Thank you for taking action! Our property rights, our due process rights, and our environment’s rights are all at risk.

*Due Process impacts. Right now, you have 30 days to appeal a decision in Nevada District Court on a permit granted by the state engineer. What happens if on day 31 a problem arises, or in year 6 of a 3M plan? There is nothing spelled out in statute that provides a recourse to someone experiencing harm.   

*Takings occur when a government regulation or action limits the uses of private property to such a degree that the regulation effectively deprives the property owners of economically reasonable use or value of their property to such an extent that it deprives them of utility or value of that property, even though the regulation does not formally divest them of title to it.