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      From: Boyd Clayton 
      To: SNAKEVALLEY@utah.gov 
      Date: Monday - September 21, 2009 9:15 AM 
      Subject: Re: Cecil's "Agreement" 




      >>> Annette Garland <annette.garland@gmail.com> 09/18/09 8:37 AM >>>
      After having attended 5 meetings concerning the Snake Valley Draft 
      Agreement
      between Utah and Nevada, my wife and I witnessed an almost total rejection
      of that agreement by the citizens of Utah who attended these meetings. 
This
      agreement is to divide the water in Snake Valley between Utah and Nevada 
      and
      was proffered by the Department of Natural Resources. This issue is of
      paramount importance to my wife and I, and we wondered if we could not 
      write
      a better agreement.

      We wanted to make the proposal brief, understandable, and without any
      ambiguities that could come to haunt us later.  This issue is of the 
utmost
      concern to us as citizen-ranchers of Callao, Utah.  We want desperately to
      protect the water resources as necessary to our way of life and to follow
      the Lincoln County Land Act -which mandates “to allow for the maximum
      sustainable, beneficial use of the resources and to protect the existing
      water rights”.

      Sincerely,

      Cecil and Annette Garland

      *
      *

      *Joint Management Agreement of the Snake Valley Aquifer by the Sovereign
      States of Utah and Nevada*

      This agreement recognizes that the Snake Valley aquifer is finite. All
      available water is being used by prior water rights holders or is water 
      that
      is necessary to sustain the integrity of the basin as a whole.

      It shall be the intent and purpose of this agreement to “allow for the
      maximum sustainable beneficial use of the resources and protect the 
      existing
      water rights” of Snake Valley in the Great Basin.  This mandate is from 
the
      Lincoln County Land Act 108-424 section 301-(e)(3).

      It is intended that this agreement shall obey and abide by this law passed
      by the United States Congress and signed by the President of the United
      States.  This direct order by Congress to maintain sustainability and 
water
      rights is hereby recognized as not mutually exclusive to the best 
interests
      of both states.  Sustainability is defined to mean: “to hold up or 
support;
      maintain; keep; nourish; bear; endure; and strengthen.” from Webster’s
      Approved Dictionary.

      Due to the following circumstances and verification by citizens of Snake
      Valley and numerous scientific studies and inquiries, it has been 
      determined
      that the Snake Valley groundwater table is dropping.  Many or most of the
      springs and seeps here on the valley floor and in the foothills of the 
      Snake
      Range are greatly reduced in flow from their previous volumes or do not 
      flow
      at all.  Most of the water-dependent biota is under severe stress with 
      large
      areas of the key species, greasewood, either dead or dying.

      It becomes the duty and obligation of this agreement to recognize the 
      causes
      of the water deficit in Snake Valley. No action to increase the decline of
      the water resources shall occur.  This agreement is intended to state
      clearly that within the confines of Snake Valley:

                1.     No inter-basin transfer of water shall occur.

      2.     No applications for large capacity-wells shall be approved 
      regardless
      of which state

            the applications may be submitted.

      3.     Small applications for culinary-water use may be considered and
      approved by both states within reasonable limits and where the water
      withdrawal for this purpose will not further cause adverse effects on the
      underground water table.

      This agreement between the two states shall endure for a period of 10 
      years.
      Both states have a right in the interim to collect, digest, and share all
      scientific and empirical information, and are encouraged to do so.

      Be it further understood, that the Lincoln County Land Act does not 
mandate
      that any water be removed from one state to the other.  The Act does not
      mandate a deadline for this agreement to be reached or that, in fact, any
      agreement must occur.

      This agreement is enter into by the sovereign states of Utah and Nevada
      freely and is done so in an effort to jointly protect the sustainability 
      and
      the water rights in the Snake Valley Basin for the benefit the citizens of
      Snake Valley in both states.

      This agreement shall be enter into in good faith and friendship and shall 
      be
      signed by the governors of both states.



      -- 

      **************************************
      Cecil C.and Annette H.Garland
      Rafter Lazy C Ranch
      Callao 225 Pony Express Road
      Callao, Utah via Wendover 84083
      435-693-3132
      **************************************