Pay No Attention To The Man Behind The Curtain
By: Doug Busselman, Executive Vice President
In the classic movie, the Wizard of Oz, Toto goes snooping around and accidentally exposes a small man behind the curtain, moving levers and dials, operating the talking “Wizard” image of the all-powerful Oz. The command “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain” is supposed to dissuade Dorothy and her band of adventurers, who brought back the broom of the vanquished Wicked Witch, from not believing that the image of the Wizard being projected in front of them wasn’t the real all-powerful Oz.
As I sat through the report from the University of Nevada on the research work they have been carrying out in the Walker River Basin – it was difficult to get out of my mind the words “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.”
When you suggest that perhaps the outcome of the research might be tainted because of the political directive to go forth and buy up as much water as you can – self-impressed scientist get their undergarments in a bunch pretty quickly. We’re supposed to understand that the science they’ve performed has nothing to do with the $56 million they’ve got waiting for approval to spend in buying water from willing sellers. “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.”
The Director for the Department of Agriculture, Tony Lesperance has put his thoughts and some numbers to paper, summarizing that destroying Lyon County’s agricultural economic engine to put water into a lake for evaporation is not something that the county, the region or the state can afford. Needless to say the University guys were not impressed with the assumptions that went into the calculations or the conclusions.
You could come away with the impression, in reading Dr. Lesperance’s paper, that the numbers got worked out on the back of an envelope – but, when you start reading the economic analysis that the University economists did…you’re not too sure that “peer review” got anything more than a slightly enhanced, Phd-blessed, sophisticated Wild _ ssed Guess (WAG).
Using three different “examples” of what could happen as the basis for determining the economic and fiscal impacts, the University’s possible results ended up with two-out-of-three in the red – upside-down as far as being a course that should be pursued. The only example that they came up with, not in the hole, involved agricultural producers changing their operations to fit a “use-less-of-your-water” game plan, sticking with farming in spite of the impacts of your Land Grant University and U.S. Senator trying to destroy your essential infrastructure.
There’s no doubt that using the information generated from the University’s $14 million-plus research project (provided by Senator Reid’s legislative handiwork) could greatly expand a centrally-planned or even a community-based solution to work out win-win approaches of getting more water into Walker Lake while still providing for viable agricultural operations up-stream.
Somewhere in getting to that frame-of-mind you do have to “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.”
In the classic movie, the Wizard of Oz, Toto goes snooping around and accidentally exposes a small man behind the curtain, moving levers and dials, operating the talking “Wizard” image of the all-powerful Oz. The command “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain” is supposed to dissuade Dorothy and her band of adventurers, who brought back the broom of the vanquished Wicked Witch, from not believing that the image of the Wizard being projected in front of them wasn’t the real all-powerful Oz.
As I sat through the report from the University of Nevada on the research work they have been carrying out in the Walker River Basin – it was difficult to get out of my mind the words “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.”
When you suggest that perhaps the outcome of the research might be tainted because of the political directive to go forth and buy up as much water as you can – self-impressed scientist get their undergarments in a bunch pretty quickly. We’re supposed to understand that the science they’ve performed has nothing to do with the $56 million they’ve got waiting for approval to spend in buying water from willing sellers. “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.”
The Director for the Department of Agriculture, Tony Lesperance has put his thoughts and some numbers to paper, summarizing that destroying Lyon County’s agricultural economic engine to put water into a lake for evaporation is not something that the county, the region or the state can afford. Needless to say the University guys were not impressed with the assumptions that went into the calculations or the conclusions.
You could come away with the impression, in reading Dr. Lesperance’s paper, that the numbers got worked out on the back of an envelope – but, when you start reading the economic analysis that the University economists did…you’re not too sure that “peer review” got anything more than a slightly enhanced, Phd-blessed, sophisticated Wild _ ssed Guess (WAG).
Using three different “examples” of what could happen as the basis for determining the economic and fiscal impacts, the University’s possible results ended up with two-out-of-three in the red – upside-down as far as being a course that should be pursued. The only example that they came up with, not in the hole, involved agricultural producers changing their operations to fit a “use-less-of-your-water” game plan, sticking with farming in spite of the impacts of your Land Grant University and U.S. Senator trying to destroy your essential infrastructure.
There’s no doubt that using the information generated from the University’s $14 million-plus research project (provided by Senator Reid’s legislative handiwork) could greatly expand a centrally-planned or even a community-based solution to work out win-win approaches of getting more water into Walker Lake while still providing for viable agricultural operations up-stream.
Somewhere in getting to that frame-of-mind you do have to “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.”
Posted by Doug Busselman at 6/25/2009 6:31 AM 
Categories: Walker River
Tags: University of Nevada Walker River Basin Project Water Grab
Categories: Walker River
Tags: University of Nevada Walker River Basin Project Water Grab
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