Last month, Nevada State Engineer Tracy Taylor denied the two counties' request for "interested party" status, saying the counties should have filed a formal objection in 1989 to the Southern Nevada Water Authority's plans to build a $3.5 billion, 285-mile pipeline.
In a lawsuit filed this week in Nevada state court, the Utah counties allege siphoning water from an aquifer that lies under the two states to feed Las Vegas would cause vegetation to die. If that happens, winds could pick up the destabilized soils and send them in dust-storm clouds to a Wasatch Front already struggling with particulate pollution.
Twenty years ago, when Las Vegas filed its application in Nevada for the project, little was known about the effects of groundwater pumping on air quality, the petition states.
Pipeline foes say that if Las Vegas takes the groundwater, the water table will be out of reach of the roots from plants that fix the soil, the same phenomenon that led to the destruction of the Owens Valley in California when Los Angeles drafted its water. Dust storms make the Owens Valley one of the nation's most polluted places.
All the Utah counties want, said Utah Association of Counties attorney Mark Ward, is to be at the table while Taylor proceeds with the project application.
"You cannot adequately assess the environmental soundness of this [water proposal] without taking into account regional air quality," said Ward, who drafted the petition for the Nevada attorney representing the counties.
Susan Joseph-Taylor, an official with the Nevada Division of Water Resources but no relation to Tracy Taylor, declined to comment on the litigation.
Tracy Taylor also denied requests for interested-party status from three Indian tribal bands and grass-roots groups in a move seen as a new, aggressive tactic to push aside Utah concerns about what could happen to Snake Valley vegetation if the water table dropped too low.
In its legal filing with the state engineer, the Southern Nevada Water Authority says the interested-party applicants failed to demonstrate that extreme circumstances prevented them from filing official protests in 1989.
Utah and Nevada still are negotiating on the project, which requires both states' approval. Also, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management is working on an environmental-impact study.
Taylor has said he would hold a final hearing on the project in late 2009.
phenetz@sltrib.com
* In April 2007, Nevada State Engineer Tracy Taylor authorized the Southern Nevada Water Authority to take up to 40,000 acre-feet of water annually from the aquifer that lies underneath Spring Valley, west of Great Basin National Park. An acre-foot is considered enough water for a family of four for a year.
* SNWA also wants to take groundwater out of Snake Valley, on the Utah-Nevada line.
* The water would run through a 285-mile pipeline to southern Nevada. SNWA had requested 91,000 acre-feet annually. Taylor estimated that 80,000 acre-feet a year could be funneled without affecting the water table.
* Utah and Nevada must negotiate a water-sharing agreement before SNWA can build the pipeline.
