by michelle Peot

Late Night Shenanigans

After the US Supreme Court refused to hear UT's case to take over the 18.5 million acres of Bureau of Land Management public lands within its boundaries, US House Representative Celeste Maloy tried another tactic. Along with Representative Mark Amodei of Nevada, Maloy created an amendment to sell off large swaths of public lands around Reno, Las Vegas, and St George, all metro areas facing water security problems. Maloy introduced the language as a late night amendment to the Natural Resources Committee's federal budget redline, where it passed 26-17.

Lack of transparency

Celeste Maloy and the WashCo County Commissioners have withheld the location of the ~11,500 acres of WashCo public land included in the proposed sales from the public. The released amendment failed to include a copy of the maps, and the County Commissioners refused a GRAMA request to disclose the maps they provided for the amendment (see map header below). Furthermore, the amendment's deadline for map public disclosure is 120 days after the enactment of the title. As taxpayers, we all own this land and our public representatives should be working on our behalf. So why all of the secrecy?

What can be gleaned from the maps

The stitched together UT maps were obtained from Jonathan Thompson's public lands Substack. The UT areas appear to be combination of:

Planned commercial and residential development
Planned Lake Powell Pipeline infrastructure
Planned wastewater management system infrastructure, including in-progress reservoirs

source: Jonathan Thompson's the Land Desk Substack

The plans underscore the myopic pattern of spending massive amounts of taxpayer money on water infrastructure projects while having no assurances that water will be available to justify the massive cost and growth.

Of interest to Toquerville residents, on page 11 of the 2024 Toquerville City General Plan, public land that the City Council identified as future commercial (shown in red) made it onto the Washington County land takeover wishlist.

source: Toquerville City 2024 General Plan (page 11)

Better alternatives exists

The federal Recreational and Public Purposes Act, Rights of Way, and land sale/swap rules already provide mechanisms for leasing, acquiring, trading, or otherwise using federal land in the public interest. They provide a structured, transparent process, including public hearings, for vetting requesters and the impact they will have on wildlife, recreation, public safety, and the surrounding communities. The proposed takeover offers none of this.

Furthermore, under the Recreational and Public Purpose Act, the cost to local taxpayers would be less than that proposed by the amendment, which mandates not less than fair market value for the land.

Reckless precedent

The proposed takeover is meant to test a backdoor method for selling off our public lands without regard for public input or impact assessments. The public hearing on the Warner Valley federal land swap underscored the importance of transparency and public input.

What’s next

The budget proposal still needs to be voted on by the US House. The goal is to finalize the language by next week, with the aim of a final vote before Memorial Day weekend.

Contact Representative Maloy, and let her know that you are opposed to her amendment, which provides a backdoor method to sell off our public lands without public input.

Here are ways to reach her:

Washington DC Office—Phone: (202) 225-9730
St. George District Office—(111 East Tabernacle) Phone: (435) 703-7720
Representative Maloy can also be emailed through her website.
The WashCo County Commissioners can be reached via the linked online forms.

The public land takeover UT reps are hiding from their constituents