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NCL News Release - Interior decision protects tourism, water quality in Southern Nevada
Conservationists and business owners from Southern Nevada joined their counterparts in the West today (Monday, Jan. 9) to applaud the Obama administration’s decision to place a 20-year moratorium on new uranium mining near the Colorado River.
The decision, announced today by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, protects the drinking water supply of some 30 million users, including more than 2 million in metropolitan Las Vegas and millions more who depend on the Colorado River for drinking water and vegetable-crop irrigation. The decision also protects the Grand Canyon National Park, the Lake Mead National Recreation Area and other national recreational and environmental assets along the Colorado River that provide the basis for a $700-million economic engine in tourism.
Sportsmen, farmers and ranchers, leadership from several American Indian tribes, water agency managers and elected officials at all levels were among those who opposed opening up areas near the Colorado River to new uranium mining. Abandoned mining and milling operations are already implicated in pollution of the river with toxic and radioactive waste products, including uranium, selenium, ammonia, arsenic and other metals. And once in the river, those elements can contaminate aquatic ecosystems for hundreds of years.
Scot Rutledge, Nevada Conservation League executive director, noted that Southern Nevada gets its drinking water from the Colorado River, downstream of proposed mining operations.
“Businesses, conservationists and government agencies agree– protecting this water resource means protecting our community's health. The Colorado River is not something Las Vegans are willing to gamble on,” Rutledge said. “The Interior Department is putting the safety and health of our community first and we applaud Secretary Salazar and President Obama for their leadership."
Outdoor recreation and habitat also will benefit from the decision.
“I applaud President Obama’s and Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar’s decision to extend the moratorium another 20 years on new mining claims in a million-acre buffer zone around the Grand Canyon,” said Alan O’Neill, former superintendent of the Lake Mead National Recreation Area and former co-manager of the Grand Canyon Parashant National Monument, from Las Vegas. “Additional mining in this area could result in serious adverse impacts to the Grand Canyon, a World Heritage Site and one of America’s most prized national assets.”
Obama administration bans uranium mining near Vegas water supply
PHOENIX - New uranium mining claims near the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River will be banned for the next 20 years, under a final decision announced by U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. Some one million acres of public lands to the north and south of the National Park are affected, though Salazar's action will not affect claims already staked near the Canyon.
Plan to allow pesticides at Lake Tahoe criticized
By MARTIN GRIFFITH
December 11, 2011
RENO, Nev.—Lake Tahoe's leading conservation organization is criticizing a regional board's vote to allow the use of pesticides to combat non-native aquatic species at the Sierra Nevada lake.
The Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board's unanimous vote Wednesday to lift a ban on the use of pesticides at Tahoe and other lakes under its jurisdiction now goes to the California State Water Resources Control Board for action.
Carl Young, interim executive director of the League to Save Lake Tahoe, said the plan poses a threat to the lake's water quality and the public's health, and he's concerned visitors and residents could be exposed to pesticides through Tahoe's fish and drinking water
Nevada ranked as nation's top green building state
Monday, December 5, 2011
BY HUBBLE SMITH
Shredded jeans that insulate Molasky Corporate Center and natural lighting that saves on electricity costs at Centennial Hills Library helped make Nevada the No. 1 state in the nation for green building.
Nevada has 10.92 square feet of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-certified green building per capita, according to the Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Green Building Council.
Centennial Hills Library in northwest Las Vegas was identified among the notable LEED-certified projects around the nation, receiving 45 points in five environmental categories.
Water pipeline plan draws flood of letters
By Henry Brean
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Dec. 5, 2011
A state board and a Clark County commissioner are among the thousands of groups and individuals who went on the record last week to oppose the Southern Nevada Water Authority's pipeline plan.
State Engineer Jason King estimates he received about 23,000 letters about the project by Friday's deadline for public comment.
Based on what he has read so far, "about 99 percent" of the letters are in opposition to the pipeline, King said.
Green technology investments lead third-quarter venture funding
Getting investors excited about long-lasting batteries was a challenge for Leyden Energy in the early days. Raising funds was even harder.
Then came the iPhone.
The popularity of Apple's mobile device and other smartphones sent engineers into a frenzy to create batteries that could outlast the power hogs. The Fremont, Calif., lithium-ion battery company was already working on a solution, and as a result it recently raised $20 million in venture funding.
Energy storage companies such as Leyden Energy led clean technology investment during the third quarter by raking in $421 million in venture capital, a 1,932% increase from the same period last year, according to an Ernst & Young report.
Companies go big in Nevada with concentrated solar thermal power plants
november 29, 2011
There are two concentrating solar power plants, SolarReserve's Crescent Dunes near Tonopah and BrightSource's Ivanpah Solar just south of the state line west of Interstate 15.
The Mojave Desert's solar potential may be even more powerful than billed. Two under-construction concentrating solar power plants -- SolarReserve's Crescent Dunes near Tonopah and BrightSource's Ivanpah Solar just south of the state line west of Interstate 15 -- aim to transform the sun into a laserlike beam that focuses on massive towers to generate power. They're called concentrating solar power plants, and they'll be the first of their kind and size in the world when they go live in the next two to three years.
Regulator to see deluge of water pipeline input
Coalition Calls For Rejection Of Groundwater Pumping Project By Southern Nevada Water Authority
CARSON CITY – A coalition of environmental groups opposed to a plan by the Southern Nevada Water Authority to pump groundwater from rural Nevada to Las Vegas to supply future demand says the project is unnecessary, expensive and would cause harm to the environment.
The coalition said it has more than 1,000 statements from Nevada residents expressing concern about the project to present to the Nevada State Engineer, who will rule early next year on the first set of groundwater applications reviewed during a lengthy hearing that ended Nov. 18.
Gov. Sandoval Orders Assessment Of Transmission Line Construction For Renewable Energy Development
CARSON CITY – Gov. Brian Sandoval today issued an executive order directing a state agency and task force to assess the regional market for Nevada’s renewable energy resources.
In a briefing with Sandoval Senior Adviser Dale Erquiaga and Nevada State Office of Energy Director Stacey Crowley, it was explained that the assessment is intended to help determine if alternative energy resources can be developed in the state for transmission to California to meet its ambitious alternative energy goals.
Letter to the Editor: More publicity needed for site
Stan Nudelman, North Las Vegas
Saturday, Nov. 19, 2011
As a retired biology teacher living so close to the proposed Ice Age Park, I want to thank Clark County Commissioner Lawrence Weekly for his support of the efforts to create a national monument at Tule Springs.
We are all aware of the need for Nevada to change how the world sees us. Yes, we are about gaming, entertainment, fine hotels and restaurants, but we must also be about conserving our natural resources and educating locals and visitors.
Letter to the Editor: Grand Canyon needs protection
Melissa Petersen, Las Vegas
Monday, Nov. 21, 2011
My family has lived and worked in Southern Nevada for four generations, and like so many of those who have been raised here, we have come to feel deeply connected to the geography of the West. One of the greatest defining features of the West is the Colorado River and the magnificent gorge the river has carved: the Grand Canyon. Las Vegas has become the jumping-off point for millions of visitors to the Grand Canyon National Park, while the river has given us a safe and reliable water source for all of our needs.
LV area has sites worthy of national recognition
Guest column: Lawrence Weekly
Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2011
"There are other sites worthy of protection as national parks, wilderness and monuments. As a Clark County commissioner, I encourage the president and Congress to consider worthy candidates in the West, and specifically in Southern Nevada, to be the nation’s next protected area.
In just one promising site, scientists from across the world recently visited Las Vegas’ proposed Ice Age Park in the northwest Las Vegas Valley, providing solid evidence of the economic benefits of protection of unique resources. The park at Tule Springs gives us a periscope to peer far back in time, when mastodons and giant sloths roamed the region and left their bones to fossilize in the stream beds near our present-day homes."
Reid challenges Republicans on 'job-killing regs'
By Steve Tetreault
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
Nov. 15, 2011
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Harry Reid challenged Republicans Tuesday over their continuing attacks on federal regulations, saying the idea that government rules are job killers is a "myth" invented to cover up GOP shortcomings on the economy.
Republicans "have yet to produce a single shred of evidence that the regulations they hate so much do the broad economic harms they claim. That's because there is none," said Reid, the Senate majority leader from Nevada.
Wilderness bill for scenic Nevada range introduced
Nov. 6, 2011
Written by Martin Griffith
Associated Press
With a rural county’s blessing, Nevada’s congressional delegation has introduced legislation to protect 26,000 acres of a scenic mountain range north of Winnemucca as a federal wilderness area.
The bill would carve the Pine Forest Range Wilderness Area out of two federal Bureau of Land Management wilderness study areas, and release 1,500 acres of existing wilderness study area lands.
More Articles...
- Building pipeline won't 'repair' Southern Nevada's economy
- Letter to the Editor: Uranium mine near Grand Canyon a bad idea
- Tule Springs fossils attracting paleontologists from around world
- Officials identify five prime Nevada areas for solar projects
- NCL Press Release: NCL Statement on Grand Canyon Uranium Mining Moratorium
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