In a landmark decision, the Southern Nevada Water Authority won almost 20 billion gallons of faraway groundwater for its pipeline on Monday, but it was not quite as much as the agency wanted.

In a 56-page decision described as "measured" and "conservative," the state's chief water regulator cleared the authority to export as much as 60,000 acre-feet of water a year from a White Pine County valley 250 miles north of Las Vegas.

That is about two-thirds of the water the agency was seeking in Spring Valley, and only some of it will be available right away.

State Engineer Tracy Taylor called for staged development of the groundwater, starting with baseline data collection followed by 10 years in which withdrawals will be capped at 40,000 acre-feet annually.

After 10 years, a determination will be made whether to allow another 20,000 acre-feet a year to be pumped.

Though the pipeline has created divisions between Clark County and its rural counterparts for years, critics of the plan did not have harsh words after the decision. They took solace in the fact that Taylor did not grant the water authority's full request, even while General Manager Pat Mulroy described her reaction as one of "a huge sense of relief."

"This was the critical block of water for us," Mulroy said.

One acre-foot of water is enough to supply two Las Vegas Valley homes for one year. When stretched through reuse, the authority's new holdings in Spring Valley could yield as much as 120,000 acre-feet, enough to supply almost a quarter of a million homes.

Spring Valley lies at the northern end of a 285-mile pipeline network the authority plans to build across eastern Nevada to feed growth in Las Vegas. The pipeline is expected to cost at least $2 billion and carry up to 200,000 acre-feet of groundwater.

The authority had hoped to get the bulk of that water, some 91,000 acre-feet, from Spring Valley, which is bordered on the east by Nevada's second tallest peak and its only national park.

But Mulroy said she wasn't surprised or disappointed by Taylor's "conservative but reasonable" approach.

"The state engineer has essentially awarded us 60,000 acre-feet, which he admits is a conservative number," Mulroy said. "What this says to me is that this (pipeline) project is now a project."

The water authority will be required to protect existing groundwater rights in the basin and allow future groundwater growth and development there.

Taylor also will require a comprehensive monitoring, management and mitigation plan to address any effects from groundwater pumping.

Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources spokesman Bob Conrad said Taylor would not comment on his decision because it is subject to appeal in court.

"The decision speaks for itself," Conrad said.

Clark County Commissioner Rory Reid, who serves on the Water Authority Board, praised Taylor's work.

"I think the state engineer was conservative and tried to protect the interests of both the environment and the rural Nevada lifestyle. He did what he could to protect the urban areas of the state, the rural areas of the state and the environment," Reid said. "I think if you can find a compromise to serve all those interests, there's wisdom in it."

Critics of the pipeline also found something to like about the decision.

Bob Fulkerson, executive director of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, called it "a victory of sorts for our side" because the authority was granted much less water than it requested.

Less water should make the expensive pipeline harder to justify to ratepayers, Fulkerson said.

"I would like to see how they're going to pencil this out. I guess you've got more money than you know what to do with if you don't care about the per acre-foot cost (of the pipeline)."

Environmental attorney Matt Kenna called Taylor's decision a "mixed bag."

"I think the state engineer sort of split the baby a bit," he said. "Forty thousand is a lot better than 90,000. I think it still leaves room for some serious impacts."

Kenna works for the Western Environmental Law Center, the New Mexico-based firm that represented pipeline opponents during a two-week hearing on the water authority's Spring Valley applications in September.

During the hearing, he and others warned that large-scale groundwater pumping in White Pine County could wipe out springs, rare wildlife and the livelihoods of rural residents.

Several pipeline opponents also tried to link the project to Owens Valley, the eastern California watershed laid to waste nearly a century ago after a massive water grab by Los Angeles.

The water authority's proposed network of pumps, storage reservoirs, power facilities and buried pipes is under review by the Bureau of Land Management, which must sign off on the project because much of it will be built across federal land.

The BLM is slated to release a draft report on the potential environmental effects of the pipeline in summer 2008, with the final report to follow in 2009. Construction of the pipeline soon would follow.

Mulroy said the authority remains on schedule to start delivering water to Las Vegas from across rural Clark, Lincoln and White Pine counties in 2015.

By then, the water authority could own nearly all of the private land in Spring Valley.

In separate transactions since July, the authority has snapped up seven ranches in the 1 million acre watershed for a combined price of almost $79 million.

Authority officials have said they plan to keep those ranches operating while using some of the surface water from the properties to offset any effects from groundwater pumping.

Pipeline opponent Gary Perea, who lives in neighboring Snake Valley, said he is taking a "wait-and-see" approach to the engineer's decision.

"I want to see what the Southern Nevada Water Authority's reaction to this is," the former White Pine County commissioner said. "I'm concerned that because the state engineer gave them half of what they wanted, they may be inclined to take some of the surface water from those ranches and put it in the pipeline to make up the difference."

Mulroy said it is telling that people on both sides of the issue seem to think Taylor's ruling favors them.

"If both parties declare victory, it must be a pretty good decision," she said.

Review-Journal writer Mike Kalil contributed to this report.

CARSON CITY -- Southern Nevada's top water official told legislators Wednesday that her agency must begin importing water from rural Nevada by 2015 or the Las Vegas Valley will go thirsty. "It is the only solution the Southern Nevada Water Authority has that can meet the time frame," said Pat Mulroy, general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority. "We must have a backup supply to protect Southern Nevada during a long and protracted drought. We looked at everything. We must get it done by the middle of the next decade."

Mulroy told the Assembly Government Committee how her agency has applied to the state engineer for permission to pump 115,000 acre-feet of groundwater from six basins in Lincoln and White Pine counties. Most of the water is in Spring Valley, about 250 miles north of Las Vegas.But she expressed frustration over her inability to persuade White Pine County commissioners to work toward a mutual solution. Mulroy noted that her agency has purchased $35 million worth of ranches in White Pine County, land that it intends to keep as working ranches. Assemblyman Pete Goicoechea, R-Eureka, said he sympathized with Mulroy but added, "You protect your own turf."

Goicoechea's district covers a vast area of Northern Nevada that reaches from White Pine and Eureka counties on the east through parts of Churchill, Humboldt, Lander, Lyon, Pershing and even parts of Washoe County on the west side of the state. "Those people in White Pine County have been there for generations," Goicoechea said. "They feel strongly about the water. I believe there is some water available for exportation, but not near what they want." He said the Southern Nevada Water Authority is being "very shortsighted" by depending on Great Basin water in times of drought. If there is a drought in the Colorado River Basin, which provides 90 percent of the water to the Las Vegas Valley, then he said there probably also will be a drought in the Great Basin. "We would all be impacted by the same drought," he said.

Mulroy was invited to speak before committee by Chairwoman Marilyn Kirkpatrick, D-North Las Vegas, who requested an update on the pipeline project. Mulroy began the hearing by describing how "Mother Nature threw us a curve" starting in 1999 with the worst drought ever to hit the Colorado River Basin. She said states that use Colorado River water formerly relied on an annual supply of 18 million acre-feet, but now the supply is more like 13 million acre-feet. One acre-foot equals 325,851 gallons, or enough water to supply two Las Vegas Valley homes for one year. She said that the world is experiencing climatic changes and that one of the three most affected areas is the Colorado River Basin.

While the water authority implemented conservation measures that cut annual consumption by 60,000 acre-feet, she said there is nothing more that can be done except for importing water from rural Nevada. She pointed out that Wendover, Tonopah, Carson City, Virginia City and other rural communities already are importing water from other basins. "That is how civilization has handled its water demand" since the time of the Egyptians, Mulroy said.

"The day of Owens Valley is over," she said, referring to an area of California east of the Sierra Nevada that was dried up and its water piped to quench the thirst of fast-growing Southern California. "Owens Valley happened at the beginning of the last century when there were no environmental laws. Today it is very different." Opponents to the Southern Nevada water importation plan often bring up the example of Owens Valley as why Las Vegas should not take rural Nevada water. Mulroy pledged to keep the "ranching culture" alive in rural Nevada areas from which the agency wants to take water.

"They need to be at the table," Mulroy said of the White Pine County commissioners.

Review-Journal writer Henry Brean contributed to this report

BEAVER DAM, Ariz. -- Along the short stretch of Interstate 15 that dips into Arizona on its way from Nevada to Utah, it's easy to feel cut off from the rest of the Grand Canyon State. But residents of the isolated northwest corner of Arizona are calling on state officials in faraway Phoenix to protect them from an unprecedented plan that would pump groundwater across the border to feed growth in nearby Mesquite. Almost 400 anxious Arizonans crowded into the multipurpose room at Beaver Dam Elementary School last week to hear more about the proposal by Arizona company Wind River Resources.

Opponents of the plan promised to pack the house again early next year, when the Arizona Department of Water Resources is expected to hold a public hearing in the Beaver Dam area before deciding whether to allow the interstate water transfer to go through. The fight dates to March 2005, when Wind River Resources filed a rare application to export groundwater from Arizona for use in another state. Arizona never has granted such an application.

Wind River wants to sell water to the Virgin Valley Water District, which services the Mesquite area. The company also wants to piggyback on the district's water system, using it to deliver water back across the border to supply development on another part of the so-called "Arizona Strip." The water in Wind River's pipeline would be pumped from wells on property northwest of Beaver Dam and piped the roughly 10 miles to Mesquite. But residents in Beaver Dam and Littlefield, Ariz., on the south side of I-15, worry that the project could lower the water table and leave their wells sucking air. "They can't take this water into Nevada without having a negative impact on Arizona. There's just no way," said Bob Frisby, whose Beaver Dam Water Company serves about 1,000 customers on the Arizona Strip. "It will dry us up."

To Beaver Dam resident Nikki Stoddard, the Wind River application is a "test case." "If Arizona allows this, it's going to open the door" to others who might want to buy land on the Arizona Strip and try to sell their groundwater to Nevada."

Jack Riley, who owns several thousand acres along I-15 in Arizona, warned that any groundwater piped to Mesquite could wind up in Las Vegas, where it would be worth tens of millions of dollars more than it is right now. He said the exportation proposal is "absolutely ridiculous, repugnant, outrageous. There's so many adjectives you could use." But Wind River Resources spokesman John Michael said the water the company plans to tap is in a different aquifer than the one that feeds the wells in Beaver Dam and Littlefield. In fact, Michael said, the groundwater Wind River is after actually flows west into Nevada anyway. "And it's important to note that not a drop of this water has ever been used before," he said.

Michael accused Frisby and Riley of whipping up opposition to the Wind River project to protect their own interests. He said Frisby wants a water monopoly on the Arizona Strip and Riley wants to increase the value of his land along I-15 by scuttling growth elsewhere in the area. "What the town ought to be is very wary of those two I think," Michael said. "The people in town don't understand they're being manipulated yet." The water fight belies the ties between Beaver Dam residents and their counterparts in Nevada and Utah. The community literally splits time with its out-of-state neighbors. The clocks there are set on Nevada time for half the year and on Utah time for the other half, thanks to its location just inside the Mountain Time Zone and its refusal, like the rest Arizona, to observe daylight-saving time.

To get to Beaver Dam from almost any other part of Arizona, you must drive through Nevada or Utah. If you need to buy groceries, go to the hospital, check out a library book or haul trash to the dump, count on a trip to Mesquite or St. George. Before and after last week's informational meeting, dozens of people lined up to sign petitions against the water deal, and most of those in attendance wore stickers advertising a Web site called NoNevadaWaterGrab.com.

A banner along I-15 directs passing motorists to the same Internet address. Stoddard is part of the group that established the Web site. She is also the one who went around Beaver Dam last week, putting up hand-lettered signs on yellow poster board that implored everyone in town to attend the meeting. "The general consensus is, nobody wants this," she said. The feeling is different down the road in Mesquite.Mike Winters has been general manager of the Virgin Valley Water District since it was formed in 1993. He said the offer from Wind River could provide for growth in and around Mesquite for a long time. Under the proposal, the amount of water piped annually from Arizona to Mesquite would increase incrementally over the next 40 years from about 1,000 acre-feet to as much as 14,000 acre-feet. Winters said the per acre-foot price of the water would start at about $200 and increase over the life of the deal to about $400. One acre-foot of water is roughly the amount used each year by two Las Vegas Valley homes. For now, Winters said, his agency is operating on the assumption that Arizona officials "are not going to give us any" of the Wind River water.

"If they do, it's a plus for us. If they don't, we're going to continue to drill wells and find the water we need," he said. The district delivers about 5,500 acre-feet of water a year to its 18,000 customers. Its service area covers more than 310 square miles in Nevada and Arizona. Winters said the district owns the rights to some 12,000 acre-feet of water, enough to support up to 40,000 people. Some predict Mesquite's population could top 40,000 in as little as four years, though Winters doesn't put much stock in such estimates. "I've almost quit looking at those projections because they're changing them so often," he said. The Arizona Strip is also growing, particularly Beaver Dam, Littlefield and Scenic. According to some estimates, the area is home to 4,000 to 5,000 people, many of them retirees or ranchers. Michael said Wind River Resources is developing its pipeline in cooperation with a property owner in Scenic, where some 5,000 acres are available for development.

Wind River's application does not specify how much of the water pumped to Mesquite could wind up in Scenic, just across the Virgin River and the state line. Like a lot of things in Nevada and Arizona these days, that question most likely will be answered by growth.

It's called the White Pine County Conservation, Recreation, and Development Act, but the pending federal lands bill may have lost the support of its namesake county. The commissioners on Tuesday voted to not back the bill unless money is added to pay for a groundwater study in areas of the county targeted by a massive pipeline to Las Vegas.

"We had to take a stand," said Commissioner Gary Perea. "Right now, water is the most important issue in White Pine County." Specifically, commissioners are calling for an amendment to the bill that would extend the scope of a federal groundwater study now under way in eastern Nevada. Perea said they want the study by the U.S. Geological Survey to examine potential impacts from the Southern Nevada Water Authority's plan to pump billions of gallons of groundwater to Las Vegas from two valleys in White Pine County. He acknowledged, however, that the commission's act of legislative brinkmanship could jeopardize the bill that took nearly four years of tours, meetings and workshops to draft.

"It's not a decision we made lightly," he said. "There are a lot of good things in the bill ... but all those things need water. If the water isn't there, all those other natural resources will go away." A letter outlining the county's concerns was sent on Wednesday to the bill's sponsors, Nevada Sens. Harry Reid and John Ensign. The measure, introduced in August, would authorize the Bureau of Land Management to auction up to 45,000 federal acres in White Pine County.

Profits would be divided, with 5 percent going into the state education fund, 10 percent for White Pine law enforcement and transportation planning, and the rest for wilderness management in the county. Reid and Ensign have touted the land sales as a way to spur growth and the economy in the rural county, where roughly 95 percent of land is under federal control. The measure also would create 13 new wilderness areas in the county, while expanding two others.

What upset some county leaders was the addition of almost $1 billion to the bill for water-related projects in Clark County, including the water authority's "cash-for-grass" program and a new sewage outflow system at Lake Mead. "We thought, 'Hell, this is a White Pine County lands bill; let's put some water projects in there for White Pine County,'" said Commissioner John Chachas, who views Tuesday's vote as a request rather than a threat.

"We're a bankrupt county," he said. "We want money for water studies, and federal pockets are much deeper than ours."

Reid spokesman Jon Summers said he is confident that White Pine County's concerns can be addressed in time for the bill to be considered by the current Congress. "It's a matter of reaching a compromise," he said. Ensign's deputy chief of staff John Lopez said he is sure the matter can be put to rest, and quickly. "In the past, we've overcome obstacles with (federal lands bills in other counties), and we're 100 percent certain we'll be able to do so with White Pine County." Perea certainly hopes so. "I don't think we're asking for anything that's unreasonable," he said. "If it kills the bill, it's an example of Reid and Ensign not listening to us. It's an example of them ignoring White Pine County."