Opponents continue Las Vegas water pipeline fight

The Great Basin Water Network says the list of those opposing Clark County’s attempts to pave the way for a pipeline to deliver eastern Nevada water to Las Vegas is growing.

Network Executive Director Kyle Roerink said the Clark County Lands Bill contains language that would effectively exempt the proposed 300-mile pipeline from environmental laws and restrictions on building across public lands.

He said the “water grab” would allow Southern Nevada Water Authority to pump more than 58 million gallons of ground water a year from the basins in eastern Nevada and western Utah. He said opponents argue that would seriously degrade the environment and destroy wildlife habitat throughout that area.

SNWA was stymied after a federal judge ruled the current pipeline right of way application would violate federal law.

Opponents now include not only a laundry list of conservation groups but Indian tribes in the area, the Central Nevada Regional Water Authority representing eight rural Nevada counties and three Utah counties.

All those groups have fought the plan for years.

“What Clark County is proposing is a pro-pipeline bill,” said Roerink. He said the bill should be renamed the “Great Basin Water Grab Act.”