Editorial: Shingle Springs casino missing water

Thursday, April 12, 2007  

"The Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians finally has everything set in place to build its casino off Highway 50 in El Dorado County.

The tribe has a court-blessed environmental document. It has an agreement with El Dorado County. And it has a new interchange that the state is scheduled to start constructing later this month.

So everything is in place for gambling to start as soon as the fall of 2008. Everything, that is, except one last ingredient: a local water supply.

If it doesn't materialize, that may not stop the casino. It may just start yet another traffic problem -- thousands more tanker trucks a year on this already-congested highway, rolling to Shingle Springs so that gamblers can wash hands and flush toilets. The whole situation is ridiculous. But then so is putting this casino in this location.

This is one of these gordian knots that will be difficult to untie. Money -- as in the casino sharing some of its profits -- may be the necessary lubricant to provide the water."

Get the Story:
Editorial: Eldo's 'dry' casino (The Sacramento Bee 4/12)
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