ProgressNow Nevada has launched an online petition to stop the Southern Nevada Water Authority from piping water from eastern Nevada to the Las Vegas Valley.
"It's time Las Vegas learns to live within its means, as all Nevadans are doing during this recession," said Executive Director Erin Neff. "Not only is the cost of the pipeline unbearable, the impact to rural Nevada has yet to be fully understood or determined."
The authority is pushing a plan to pump water from deep aquifers in eastern Nevada 250 miles to the Las Vegas Valley.
Opponents have argued that would effectively eliminate any chance for economic development in eastern Nevada and could lower the water table so that existing ranches and other users find themselves without water.
Neff called for greater conservation and research into alternatives for Southern Nevada but said the pipeline plan is unworkable and hasn't satisfied environmental concerns.
"A gamble that could dry up our economy as well as our watershed is not worth any price," she said.
The petition is at www.progressnownevada.org/page/s/watergrab.