Spring Snails Survival Threatened by SNWA Pipeline (tags)
The spring snails of the Great Basin region are threatened by construction of the SNWA pipeline to Las Vegas. Spring snails are vital as primary consumer herbivores to reduce algae and thereby prevent eutrophication, also being the base of the trophic food web pyramid that supports trout, eagles and humans. Spring snails should be protected under ESA and are more valuable than golf courses and sprawl development north of Las Vegas.
Rainwater Harvesting; Alternatives to SNWA Pipeline Project (tags)
Another option for Las Vegas is to outfit roofs with rainwater harvesting systems, both for collecting water and to reduce runoff that creates flash floods. This would create jobs and result in permanant solutions to increasing water supplies, unlike the SNWA's proposed pipeline from the Snake Valley aquifer that would cost billions and most likely overdraft the aquifer in less than 10 years time. Though the pipeline's promise of indefinite future supplies (real or imagined) could make some developers like Harvey Whittemore happy in the short term!!
NV; New Cave Species at Risk from SNWA Pipeline (tags)
Two new cave species were discovered near Great Basin Natn'l Park's Lehman Caves, part of the same cave aquifer system that SNWA plans to pump billions of gallons away from with their proposed pipeline. The species found were a shrimp called an ostracod and a cave millipede. Both depend on groundwater in caves that would be taken to Whittemore's suburban sprawl developments outside of Vegas city limits.