Critics of the proposed deal to divide the groundwater beneath Snake Valley between Utah and Nevada do not believe there are 132,000 acre-feet of water available as a sustainable yield, the figure that the pact assumes. It turns out that Utah's negotiating team shares that concern. So why did the Beehive State's bargainers agree to it?

One answer, revealed by documents recently disclosed, is that Nevada threatened to ask its congressional delegation to seek repeal of the federal law that requires the two states to come to terms on Snake Valley water. Considering that Nevada's delegation includes Harry Reid, the U.S. Senate's majority leader, that's a threat that commands attention.

Presumably, if that federal law went away, Nevada could simply allocate what its state engineer considered that state's share of the available yield to be, and Utah's only recourse would be to sue to protect its water rights in the U.S. Supreme Court, where it would have to prove it had been injured. That could take many years and millions of dollars, and Utah might not win. Proving injury could be dicey.

There are other possible explanations. Although the two-state bargain gives half the water to each state, it holds 24,000 acre-feet in reserve. The upshot is that the Nevada state engineer could award, at most, 36,000 acre-feet to the Southern Nevada Water Authority, which wants to pipe the water to Las Vegas. SNWA has asked for 50,000 acre-feet of Snake Valley water, so the proposed deal reduces the amount it could take. The 24,000 acre-feet left in reserve could only be allocated if both states agreed.

However, the elephant in the room, and the most likely explanation for Utah negotiators agreeing to the deal, is the proposed Lake Powell Pipeline. That project would pump water 120 miles from Lake Powell to St. George, and perhaps as far north as Cedar City. Because it would use a portion of Utah's undeveloped allocation under the Colorado River Compact, Utah doesn't want to rile other compact states, including Nevada, who might oppose the project. SNWA has threatened to make trouble for Utah if it doesn't play ball on Snake Valley.

We believe that the Lake Powell Pipeline is folly for the same reason that we oppose Las Vegas' scheme to pump groundwater from Snake Valley to Sin City. In both cases, the waters already are overallocated or nearly so, and with global warming, extracting more water from either Snake Valley or the Colorado River is unsustainable.

It would be doubly foolish, then, for Utah to sacrifice Snake Valley water on the altar of the Lake Powell Pipeline.