Water network declares victory over Las Vegas water pipeline project

After 30 years of fighting, the Great Basin Water Network has declared victory in its battle to prevent the Southern Nevada Water Authority from building a 300-mile pipeline they say would drain northeastern Nevada of water.

Spokesman Kyle Roerink said SNWA this week voted to move the project into “indefinite deferred status” in its resource plan. That revokes the authority’s remaining water rights applications originally filed in 1989 as the key part of its groundwater development project.

SNWA wanted permits for a 300-mile right of way through Bureau of Land Management property that eastern Nevada residents and ranchers as well as conservation groups described as a huge water grab that would permanently drain water resources from that area.

The decision, Roerink said, follows a March 9 order by District Judge Robert Estes that ruled the applications to pump water from Spring, Dave Dry Lake and Delamar Valleys illegal under Nevada law.

He said that was the seventh consecutive legal victory for opponents of the project. Roerink said that means the aquifers in that area will keep billions of gallons of water.

“The defeat of the water pipeline boondoggle is more than a huge victory for Great Basin Water Network and our allies,” said network President Abby Johnson. “It is also a win for future generations of plant life, wildlife and human life in the Great Basin.”