INSTRUCTIONS:

Please copy and paste comments, click on the buttons (above and below), paste comments in BLM’s portal, and then send to federal regulators. Your voice is more important than ever.

***The deadline is February 24, 2025.

COPY AND PASTE THIS LANGUAGE:

• BLM must consider all comments and reports submitted by the Great Basin Water Network, Nevada Northern Railway, City of Ely and the McGill-Ruth Consolidated Sewer and Water General Improvement District.

• BLM should extend the public comment deadline by at least 30 days.

• BLM must consider that this EA is part of a larger proposal to pump and pipe groundwater into new reservoirs. BLM should not allow segmentation and must consider cumulative impacts as it relates to a future EIS administered by federal officials.

• The study must develop an accurate characterization of baseline conditions that’s based on both current and historical groundwater level trend data over an appropriate timeframe.

• The applicant must then use site-specific baseline data to create a localized version of Great Basin Carbon and Alluvial Aquifer System, a three-dimensional numerical groundwater flow model produced by the USGS to analyze groundwater conditions and potential impacts throughout the Great Basin Carbonate Aquifer province, which includes Steptoe Valley. Such a localized model could be used to better predict Project impacts in Steptoe and surrounding groundwater basins. This analysis must be performed with reference to an appropriate timeframe, which should coincide with predicted aquifer recovery period after pumping has ceased. Finally, impacts must be presented using a minimum of a 2-foot contour line, to better ensure that impacts to springs will be captured in modeling results.