By:  Doug Busselman, Executive Vice President

The voice at the other end of the cell phone call sought to motivate me into supporting what they suggested would be “a world-class research facility”.  I doubted that was the case then and little has changed to disprove my skepticism.

The champion of the project, seeking Nevada Farm Bureau’s willingness to go along with the idea, was a staff representative of U.S. Senator Harry Reid.

I believed then, that what would become known as the Walker Basin Project, was nothing more than an end-run around a Congressional-adopted legislative prohibition where funds appropriated in the 2002 Farm Bill could not be used to purchase or acquire land or water for the “Desert Lakes” program. 

Through the supposed scientifically-motivated desire to establish a “world-class research facility” the University of Nevada would use a $70 million re-appropriation from the Desert Lakes allocation to acquire the land and appurtenant water rights to be used in this effort.

The University Of Nevada System, where the funding was sent to get around the restriction of land/water purchases, willing entered into a pact that now has them involved in playing real estate agent, seeking to purchase land and water rights in the Nevada portion of the Walker River Basin so that the water can be sent to Walker Lake.

We’ve been extremely critical of the University of Nevada’s involvement in the project and have been of the opinion that their complicity amounts to a lack of integrity, compromising themselves and whatever credibility they might have had as a research institution.  The involvement of a land-grant institution in an effort to destabilize and weaken the culture of communities built on the foundation of agricultural production is especially repugnant.

Of the $70 million fund (to establish the “world-class research facility”) about $14 million was put into “research” projects and $56 million was earmarked to be used in acquiring the land and water rights from willing sellers.  From the discussions and reports that we’ve been around, the land part of the potential purchases isn’t a very high priority.  (They’d actually prefer to not get any land in the deal...because that would then subject the University to a level of responsibility that they’d rather not be burdened with.) 

Somewhere along the line, the “world-class research facility” became a “virtual research facility” not needing to have land or a physical place…just the cash.

Currently, an Environmental Impact Statement is being developed on behalf of the Bureau of Reclamation “to decide” if going forward with purchases of water rights is a sound decision.  The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires government agencies to go through this public decision process to document the alternatives they’ve considered in selecting the best choice for going forward.

Given the way integrity has been compromised so far, pardon us for our cynical frame of mind when it comes to how this process will play out.