Posted: June 15, 2008     Author: Cecil Garland and Ed Firmage

Las Vegas Water Grab Threatens Great Basin Communities:Critical Mass and the Depopulation of Spring Valley

CRITICAL MASS AND THE DEPOPULATION OF SPRING VALLEY: Critical mass in physics is the amount of material that must be present before a chain reaction can sustain itself. Critical mass has also come to mean the size or scale at which a community acquires self-sustaining viability.

Spring Valley, in eastern Nevada, has for over a hundred years been a community of ranchers living not close together, but close enough form friendships and, of course, some animosity but always a community willing to help each other in times of need. Ranching communities are like no other in that living two to 10 miles apart, they do come together often enough to maintain an ongoing critical mass so that they can continue their way of life. The recent purchasing of ranches in Spring Valley at highly inflated prices by Southern Nevada Water Authority is destroying that critical sense of viability. SNWA must know that what they do is destructive to the ranching community and are doing so deliberately. Ranchers need a relationship with their neighbors that is both lasting and mutually beneficial as has been the case in Spring Valley.

Ranchers work together in the spring to gather, brand, mark, vaccinate, and castrate their calves, and in the fall they work together to wean and ship the calves. Helping each other in these endeavors is a long established necessary tradition. Together they build and repair fences. They borrow, rent and exchange machinery, tools and help each other during haying. When going to town, one party may do a multitude of chores for a neighbor saving him a long, expensive trip to town. Older ranchers also depend on the younger people for help which is most often given freely and cheerfully. Phone calls, visits, trips together, social events, and church, the fabric that holds people together, is being torn apart. When ranches are sold to buyers that have no intentions of ranching or replacing the family, then the chain of sustainability and viability is weakened and finally broken. Uneasiness and apprehension will begin to take place in the minds of those who want to remain on the land. Questions will arise. Should I sell now while I can get a big price?

Is it inevitable that SNWA with all their power and wealth will take our water and then will our ranches be nearly worthless? Will our government really protect us, or in fact, can they?

When a valley is being settled by a pioneering, often reclusive individual, there is optimism. The first settlers knew well that others would follow, and that other ranches would come in time. When ranches begin to sell as they are doing today, the opposite psychological effects begin to happen. A foreboding gloom can become pervasive and constant with worry about what is next. Will there be any ranches or community left in a few years? Would any young folks want to come back to the valley? Will the roads, phone service, schools and school buses be maintain or possibly abandoned? It is understandable that young people would be reluctant to return to a valley stripped of its sense of community and the accepted amenities and necessities. These and many more questions of uncertainty are being raised.

Current events of endless hearings and deliberations, often by people who are alien to the ranching way of life, are lessons in how to destroy the critical mass of a valley. These circumstances will send ranching people into burgeoning cities where they are likely to be discontent and unhappy, longing deep in their hearts and souls for the space, the beauty, and the cohesiveness of their former community now gone like the cowboy riding into the sunset.

Cecil C. and Annette H. Garland
Rafter Lazy C Ranch
Callao 225 Pony Express Road
Callao, Utah via Wendover 84083
435-693-3132

(See http://beta.manyone.net/communities/groups/articles/view/1720/133508/ )

Author(s): Edwin Firmage

NOTE by Ed Firmage, Jr.: This is a piece by my friend Cecil Garland, who lives in Callao, Utah, one of many rural Great Basin communities that will be harmed if Las Vegas's bid to pump ground water from eastern Nevada and western Utah is approved. All of you who love the desert of the Great Basin should let your voice be heard. This water grab will affect not only ranching communities like Callao but also, potentially, wildlife refuges, natural springs, and range land over a large area. There is a significant potential for desertification like that experienced in the Owens Valley (CA) when Los Angeles did its own water grab at the turn of the twentieth century. To find out how you can help, please get in touch with Cecil or his wife Annette (contact info below) or email Terry Marasco. On July 15, 2008, there is a critical hearing on this issue with Nevada's water engineer, and those wishing to protest the SNWA (Southern Nevada Water Authority) drilling plan must register in advance. If you're not familiar with what Las Vegas is trying to do, there's a worthwhile NPR feature.