Bob Fulkerson argues for more water conservation in the Las Vegas Valley at the Southern Nevada Water Authority board meeting Thursday. To meet growing water demands, the board adopted 22 recommendations, including plans to tap groundwater in rural Nevada. Photo by John Locher.

Faced with a looming hole in the region's water supply, the Southern Nevada Water Authority board adopted a list of recommended actions Thursday, including a pipeline network stretching across hundreds of miles of rural Nevada.

The 22 recommendations cover the next 30 years and include a mix of conservation, management of existing supply and the development of new water resources.

In addition to the $2 billion pipeline into rural Clark, Lincoln and White Pine counties, the list includes a recommendation to make permanent all existing drought restrictions on landscaping and sprinkler use.

Other resources targeted are the Virgin River, ocean desalination, and water banked by the authority in Arizona, California and the Las Vegas Valley.

The recommendations were developed over 14 months by the authority's Integrated Water Planning Advisory Committee, a 29-member panel made up of ranchers, developers, environmentalists, business leaders and others affected by the water authority's plans.

"We need all resources and all measures to meet future demand," said Kay Brothers, deputy general manager for the water authority.

Without new sources of water, the Las Vegas Valley is expected to begin to outgrow its supply within the next five years. By 2035, local demand is projected to exceed the current supply by almost 450,000 acre-feet of water a year.

The recommended actions are designed to plug that hole.

"There is nothing that we can afford not to do. We have to do it all," Water Authority General Manager Pat Mulroy said.

Added committee member Brent Hardy: "If we do not do it now, when will we do it? And if we don't do this, what will we do?"

The pipeline project is expected to bring more than 140,000 acre-feet of water a year to the Las Vegas Valley, but it has stirred concern and opposition in the rural areas targeted by the authority.

Lincoln County farmer Bevan Lister said he needs more water to be able expand his farm, but he can't get it because the authority filed for almost all of the unappropriated groundwater in rural Clark, Lincoln, Nye and White Pine counties 15 years ago.

"You locked the door on growth for one-third of the state of Nevada," Lister said. "That door remains locked."

The recommendations adopted Thursday include a call to decrease per-capita water use in the Las Vegas Valley by 10 percent during the next 30 years. That goal is projected to save 50,000 acre-feet annually.

There are 325,851 gallons in an acre-foot, which is enough water to supply two Las Vegas Valley households for almost a year.

Conservation is very important to reaching our goals, Brothers said.

Water Authority board member Shari Buck said she wants to know what the increased conservation effort might mean for the average Las Vegas household.

It's one thing to talk about reducing water use, Buck said. But knowing how to actually achieve the goal and what that might cost is another.

Mulroy suggested holding a workshop with the board in January to discuss the specifics of a conservation plan.

"Going from temporary drought measures to a permanent way of life, all those quality-of-life issues have to be on the table for discussion," Mulroy said. "We're walking into the unknown."

But some think the conservation goals don't go nearly far enough.

Bob Fulkerson, state director of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, said the community can and should do more. "We live in one of the driest places in the world," he said. "We shouldn't get a big pat on the back for doing the right thing."

After voting to accept the committee's recommendations, the water authority board unanimously approved a resolution in support of the pipeline project. The resolution is expected to help bolster the authority's case as the project undergoes an environmental review by federal officials.

The authority also will need approval from the Nevada Division of Water Resources before it can pump groundwater to fill those pipelines.

The first rural groundwater is expected to arrive in Las Vegas in 2008 from basins near Indian Springs, where the authority hopes to withdraw as much as 8,900 acre-feet of water a year.

Indian Springs resident Ann Brauer doesn't like that idea. At the end of Thursday's meeting, Brauer took the water authority and its recommended actions to task for not including growth controls in the Las Vegas Valley.

"I think we have a responsibility to look at growth," said Brauer, who is the chairwoman of the Indian Springs Town Board. "It has costs. It has consequences."

Environmentalist John Hiatt, who served on the advisory committee, said the list of recommendations is merely a start. Ultimately, he said, Southern Nevadans will have to make a choice "between living in a desert oasis and true desert living with very little water."

And all the talk about pursuing new resources and expanding the valley's "water portfolio" won't mean much in 30 years, when demand outstrips supply once again, Hiatt said.

"If a person has to work three jobs to pay his mortgage, we would think of him as overextended. We would not admire the diversity of his income sources."