The lawsuit, filed in a state district court in Ely, accuses the state's water engineer of violating constitutional rights of people who weren't allowed to formally protest water-pumping applications of the Southern Nevada Water Authority.
The state engineer's office held in a July 27 decision that such protests would only be allowed from those who protested when the SNWA applications were first filed in 1989.
Individuals who sued were joined by the Great Basin Water Network, Great Basin and Utah chapters of Trout Unlimited and the Defenders of Wildlife.
''We should have the same rights as anyone else in protecting their water,'' said longtime Nevada rancher Bruce Jensen, who has lived in the Lund area for 11 years.
