Click image for enlargement. Graphic by Mike Johnson.

If this whole water thing doesn't work out, officials from the Southern Nevada Water Authority could make a go of it in the alfalfa market.

With the purchase of two more ranches Thursday, the authority owns almost 10,000 acres of agricultural land in the White Pine County valley where the agency hopes to get most of the water for its pipeline to Las Vegas.

The authority's latest acquisitions in Spring Valley, 250 miles north of Las Vegas, are the 880-acre Wahoo Ranch and the 80-acre Bransford Ranch. The properties come with 2,056 acre-feet of water rights, which the authority plans to keep in the valley and use to help offset any ill effects of large-scale groundwater pumping.

Spring Valley lies at the northern end of the $2 billion pipeline network the authority plans to build to feed growth and help insulate Las Vegas from drought.

Of the roughly 180,000 acre-feet of water that could someday fill the pipeline, 91,000 acre-feet could come from Spring Valley.

Nevada's top water regulator, State Engineer Tracy Taylor, is expected to rule next year on the authority's groundwater applications in Spring Valley.

Since August, the authority has spent about $35.4 million in the valley to buy 9,925 acres and more than 20,000 acre-feet of water rights.

The acquisitions might make the water authority the largest single land owner in Spring Valley. At the very least, the authority is "pretty close" to that title, said White Pine County Assessor Robert Bishop.

Under the deal approved by authority board members Thursday, the agency will pay $701,000 for the Bransford Ranch and $5.6 million for the Wahoo Ranch, which authority deputy counsel John Entsminger described as "one of the most picturesque properties in Spring Valley."

There are approximately 650 acres of alfalfa currently in production at the Wahoo Ranch. "This is a real, live, operating ranch with a significant amount of equipment," Entsminger said.

As with the other Spring Valley properties it has purchased, the authority plans to hire a manager and keep the two ranches operating much as they are now.

To take that much land out of production would deprive White Pine County of some much needed tax revenue, said Pat Mulroy, general manager of the water authority.

The ranch purchases have drawn criticism from opponents of the pipeline plan, who accuse the authority of trying to buy out any potential witnesses to the project's ill effects.

"That wasn't our intention," Mulroy said. "Our intention was to have the water resources to protect the environment" in Spring Valley.

Mulroy added that the ranch owners contacted the water authority, not the other way around. "They see this as their opportunity to make money on their assets," she said.

The authority has received a calls from a few other Spring Valley landowners, Entsminger said, but no other deals are in the works.