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Nevada Environmentalists Applaud Utah Decision

U.S. Bureau of Land Management

  Environmentalists who’ve been trying to stop a water pipeline from the Great Basin to Las Vegas are applauding a decision by Utah’s governor to reject an agreement between Utah and Nevada.

The Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, or PLAN, has been working for years to stop the pipeline that would carry groundwater from valleys near the Utah-Nevada line to Las Vegas.  Utah Governor Gary Herbert decided this week he wouldn’t sign an agreement on water rights in Snake Valley, and PLAN director Bob Folkerson says that touched off a celebration in his office.

“There’s nothing like a victory, an interim victory like this to rally the troops," Folkerson tells KUER.  "And it’s hard to understate the impact this is going to have on the morale on putting the oomph back in people to continue to fight this thing.”

The Southern Nevada Water Authority issued a statement saying it was disappointed by the governor’s decision, and that it would “evaluate its options.”  The authority has said in the past it might sue the state of Utah if the agreement wasn’t finalized.

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