BLM RELEASES 800+ PAGE FEIS ON FRIDAY AND VOWS A STAMP OF APPROVAL ON MONDAY FOR CEDAR CITY. WATER GRAB AND PIPELINE TO HARM AREAS NEAR GREAT BASIN NATIONAL PARK IN GREAT SALT LAKE DESERT
Today, representatives from the Great Basin Water Network, the Indian Peaks Band of Paiute, Beaver County (UT), the Center for Biological Diversity, and a West Desert rancher released the following statements after the Bureau of Land Management issued a Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Cedar City Pipeline, which will siphon away billions of gallons of West Desert groundwater for sprawl from rural communities and ecosystems in Utah and Nevada .
The project proponent of the Pine Valley Pipeline, the Central Iron County Water District, is facing pushback from a large coalition of governments, advocates, and businesses that are continuing a decades long fight to stop the pipeline from harming areas near Great Basin National Park in the Great Salt Lake Desert.
BLM released the massive document for the 70-mile pipeline to the outskirts of Cedar City on a Friday afternoon and has said that a final decision will be signed on Monday. The short timeframe is an aberration from normal practice under the National Environmental Policy Act for large-scale projects.
Rural governments, residents, businesses and advocates have been fighting this project in various stages since 2005. The large-scale, sweeping effects of the groundwater development in the remote deserts will have devastating impacts along the Utah-Nevada border.
WATCH A FILM ON THE PROJECT, AND SEE THE IMPACTS OF GROUNDWATER MINING IN THE GREAT SALT LAKE DESERT.
QUOTES FROM COALITION MEMBERS
“Iron County water officials will siphon away our federally reserved water rights if the government approves this project,” said Tamra Borchardt-Slayton, chairwoman of the Indian Peaks Band of Paiute. “We will continue to work to protect our interests from this pipeline and water grab.”
“Iron County water officials are not living up to their obligations — forcing so many of us rural counties to band together and take action,” said Beaver County Commissioner Tammy Pearson. “You can’t pump all that water from Pine Valley and not expect impacts everywhere else in the region. Iron County is robbing Peter to pay Paul. We will continue to do what’s best for our county’s residents and our future as we review this giant document.”
“Iron County’s own model shows that their pumping will dry up my springs,” said Mark Wintch, a rancher in the West Desert’s Wah Wah Valley. “It is infuriating that the data show a senior rights holder getting harmed and our state government is sitting on their hands and not doing a thing. When something is wrong, it is wrong. I never thought I would be fighting alongside such diverse interests to protect my rights. But Iron County wants to drain the Great Salt Lake Desert for data centers and warehouses in Cedar City. This will have impacts beyond the West Desert over time. This isn’t about me. It’s about so much more, and that’s why so many rural interests are partnering to stop this.”
“If the federal government allows Iron County to put their straws in the ground, the impacts will be felt for many years to come and across many different basins — even into Nevada, said Kyle Roerink, executive director of the Great Basin Water Network. “The integrity of Iron County’s bought-and-paid-for science and its intentions for the water are highly questionable. And the impacts of the project over time will be undeniable. These are not isolated pockets of water. This is a connected groundwater system in the Great Salt Lake Desert. Once the water is gone, it won’t be coming back.”
“This has been a long, frustrating process that has not yielded significantly different results from when the draft environmental review came out in 2022,” said Megan Ortiz, a staff attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “We will be doing a full review of this document and promise to continue fighting for the biodiversity of Utah’s West Desert.”
