Nevada and the Great Basin lost Simeon Herskovits, one of its most passionate and dedicated public interest water attorneys, last week. Through his calm but assertive rhetorical style, Herskovits played a pivotal role in ensuring water officials weighed the impacts of their policymaking on the public interest and the environment. Over the past two decades, Herskovits was a constant presence in Nevada courtrooms, advising rural counties and advocating on behalf of the Great Basin Water Network in challenging the Southern Nevada Water Authority’s bid to ship rural groundwater to Las Vegas. He was persistent in his legal challenges, a true thorn in the side of the water authority as the network cleverly contested the project through every avenue.