Land Sales Aimed at Fueling Growth: LA Times

Home Browse Search

Page 2 of 4 "We have 17 counties. We have 15 to go after this," vowed the Senate's second highest - ranking Democrat, Harry Reid of Nevada, who with others in the delegation intends to draw up similar bills for every county in the state. In addition to selling federal land, the bills funnel portions of the proceeds to local and state government to subsidize any ensuing growth. The Lincoln bill would hand 45% of the sales revenue to county government to foster economic development — a bigger share for locals than granted in any previous southern Nevada legislation. "This is a fairness issue here," said Rep. Jim Gibbons, a Nevada Republican who has been pushing to give local and state government a larger piece of the revenue pie. "Everything that you and I rely on for our county government to do," he said, "they struggle with, because there is no private land there and no tax base. There aren't many people, but they are spread out. They still need roads, they still need a court system, they still need schools." Where Gibbons sees equity, others see a giant giveaway of public resources. "It's a big -time lands bill, set up to facilitate development in a part of Nevada that doesn't have the resources or water to support it," objected ecologist Daniel Patterson of the Tucson -based Center for Biological Diversity, one of several environmental groups opposed to the Lincoln proposal. "You're talking about selling a national asset — land that belongs to the American people — and the money goes into the pocket of the county." The legislation taps into a resentment of the federal government's pervasive presence that is deeply rooted in Nevada. Bypassed by homesteaders for more hospitable territory, most of the state remained in federal hands after the frontier's closing. Today, Nevadans recite land ownership statistics like an angry dirge: 86% is controlled by the federal government, a greater percentage than in any other state in the nation. In Lincoln County, the figure is 98 %. "Nevada is very much like a colonial possession in terms of control of the actual land," said Eric Herzik, a political science professor at the University of Nevada, Reno. "To speak of the county is almost laughable. It's a swath of federal land." The land legislation, he said, is a way to redress a historical imbalance. But as the auctions spread beyond the booming Las Vegas Valley, some environmentalists say they are creating a dangerous national model and promoting leap -frog growth in a state already in the grip of a historic drought and clamoring for more water. "There's a reason most of Nevada belongs to the public: It's very arid," Patterson said. "Nevada is one of those states where the environment can't support a lot of development." Environmental activists are especially critical of the Lincoln bill's water provisions, which they contend would speed groundwater development that could dry up eastern Nevada. The legislation is "the first step in re- creating the Owens Valley, with its economic and environmental disasters," said Rose Strickland of the Sierra Club's Toiyabe Chapter, referring to the slice of eastern California that Los Angeles has drained for nearly a century. The Lincoln bill would establish rent -free rights of way for an extensive network of water pipelines on public land. One 256 -mile -long corridor would be assigned to the Southern Nevada Water Authority. The regional provider has filed claims with the state engineer to tap large amounts of groundwater from a deep aquifer underlying eastern and southern Nevada and pump it to Las Vegas. Environmentalists worry that the pumping would threaten the Desert National Wildlife Refuge — a large portion of which is in southwest Lincoln County — as well as water supplies in Death Valley National Park and rural eastern Nevada. Another pipeline route — 192 miles long — would be granted to Lincoln County, which has a deal with a private firm, Vidler Water Co., to develop local groundwater supplies to serve growth. Southern Nevada water officials note that under the legislation, environmental reviews must be conducted. "It doesn't in any way circumvent the process, but allows us to hone in where the utility corridor will be," said Pat 8/23/2004