Brad Udall, who does western water policy research out of the University of Colorado, likes to quote an old western water saying: "I’d rather be upstream with a shovel and a ditch than downstream with a decree."

At times like these, we New Mexicans can be glad we're upstream from Las Vegas, Nevada. Next week, the board of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, which provides Vegas with water, has been asked to take an up-or-down vote on whether to build a massive pipeline to important groundwater from a rural area area 300 miles away.

The executive director calling for the vote, Pat Mulroy, has become a towering figure in western water circles, and her call for a vote has a bit of the do-or-die gunslinger about it. From Henry Brean's story in the Las Vegas Review Journal:

If board members do the unexpected and vote to halt the project, the authority's water resource plan will have to be amended to show what Mulroy called "an absolute hole" in the valley's water supply starting in about 2020.

Mulroy warned that such uncertainty about the community's water supply would "spill over into our ability to recover economically. The banks will go crazy."

The worst-case scenario involves a drop in Lake Mead so severe that it cuts the valley off from most of its present water supply.

Without some sort of safety net like the in-state pipeline, you don't have water in hydrants," Mulroy said. "You can't put out a major fire.

"You're going to live like Amman, Jordan. You're going to get water once a week."

Mulroy is responsible for the "shortage" in Vegas. That's because she's responsible for cheap water in the area. Since cheap water has spurred demand, it has also drained Lake Mead. So if you want to blame someone for Mead is drying out and a $ multi-billion pipeline, blame Mulroy.

Why didn't she raise prices and balance supply and demand in Vegas? Because she's pro-growth (developers), pro-engineering (the third straw into Lake Mead and pipeline will cost ratepayers a LOT), and pro-power.

If she raised prices 5 years ago, her job would have been boring. No headlines. Just quiet competence.

More on this affair from Emily Green, Michael Campana, and umm, me. Picture of Lake Mead's drought-inspired "bathtub ring" courtesy NASA.