BREAKING NEWS: Rural Water Pipeline Receives Major Blow

Posted: Jan 28, 2010 2:38 PM EST Updated: Jan 28, 2010 2:47 PM EST

LAS VEGAS -- Plans to siphon billions of gallons of groundwater from rural Nevada were tossed out today by the Nevada Supreme Court.
The court ruled that the state engineer did not follow the law when he allowed the Southern Nevada Water Authority to file for groundwater rights back in 1989 and then sit on those rights for all these years.

Click on title above to read Court Decision;
http://www2.lasvegasnow.com/docs/Great%20Basin%20Water%20Supreme%20Court.pdf

The decision is seen as a major blow to plans for building a multi-billion dollar pipeline from Las Vegas into rural areas 300 miles away. The Southern Nevada Water Authority has already spent tens of millions of dollars on the plan, which environmentalists say would destroy a vast section of eastern Nevada.

The court ruled that SNWA will have to start all over in applying for the water rights. The surprise decision by the court was handed down Thursday morning.



http://www.lasvegasnow.com/Global/story.asp?S=11896235