So, what is it that Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) is terrified you might find out? Watergrab-gate. Tens of millions of Las Vegans' dollars have been wasted, because it is now cheaper to desalinate sea water.

About 4 years ago, I read a SNWA report that claimed desalinated water was about 30% more expensive than watergrab water. Looking back now, I realize that a number of important cost issues got left out of the report. But most importantly, this report had no way of predicting the fall in desalination costs.

The companies NanoH2O, nanOasis, Energy Recovery, Oasys, and Sterling Water have all developed various desalination technologies that drastically reduce the energy costs to desalinate water.

Utilizing SNWA's own cost calculations from 4 years ago, these new technologies show that the cost of desalinization has dropped below that of the watergrab. So, why haven't the executives at SNWA been cheering the new development? Watergrab-gate. They've wasted almost $80 million on overpriced rural Nevada ranches – and they are terrified that they will lose their jobs because of it. It looks like SNWA executives would rather devastate rural Nevada than admit they've made this costly mistake.

Southern Nevada could build offshore desalination facilities to provide water to California in exchange for a bigger allotment of the Colorado River. No pipeline is necessary. Desal/trade is cheaper overall, doesn't require billions up front, won't have as high of finance charges, won't require (unknown) mitigation expenses, won't cripple rural Nevada's economy, won't risk the ruination of Las Vegas' economy (if Southern Nevada doesn't grow as hoped), and will provide more water in the long run – which means cheaper water prices. The suppression of this information is what makes watergrab-gate the most hideous perpetuation of a bad idea I have seen in Nevada history.