CARSON CITY -- A Las Vegas water official told the state engineer Thursday the agency wants to move forward with hearings in July to appropriate tens of thousands of acre-feet of groundwater from rural Nevada to quench the thirst of rapidly growing Clark County.

But the approximately 30 opponents of the plan want to take at least a year before the process begins to allow for an aquifer study now under way to be completed. The Basin and Range Carbonate Aquifer System Study, funded by Congress, is expected to be finished in 2007.

"We're simply asking the state engineer to wait for the best available information before making decisions that could irrevocably destroy our way of life," said White Pine County Commissioner Gary Perea.

But Paul Taggart, an attorney representing the Southern Nevada Water Authority, said the completed study isn't necessary to move forward with the plan to import between 125,000 and 180,000 acre-feet of water to the south by 2012 to 2015 to supply the growing Las Vegas metropolitan area.

The conflicting views were expressed at a pre-hearing conference to set the rules for the $2 billion water importation plan first proposed by Southern Nevada water officials in 1989.

At issue are 33 Las Vegas Valley Water District applications for groundwater rights in Lincoln and White Pine counties.

State Engineer Hugh Ricci did not make any decisions on the various issues at the all-day hearing. Instead, an order will be issued in the coming weeks answering the myriad questions, from the start time of the hearings to the location and the way the groundwater applications will be processed.

Taggart wants to start the hearings on July 10. The proposal would hear one set of applications for two weeks with a one week break, followed by two more such hearings.

Opponents, including federal agencies such as the U.S. Park Service, want two staggered hearings, with one in the spring of 2007 followed by a second in 2008.

The authority plans to pump water from the ground as far north as Ely and route it south through a pipeline network. In addition to meeting future demand in the Las Vegas Valley, the project is meant to reduce the community's dependence on the Colorado River, which accounts for 90 percent of the local drinking water supply.

About 275 separate parties filed for protester status when the 33 applications were filed 16 years ago. They included rural officials, ranchers, conservationists, and federal agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

But only about 30 have responded to the recent notice from the Division of Water Resources and want to continue to protest the applications.

A new organization opposed to what it calls the "Las Vegas water grab" said Ricci should wait for the groundwater study before hearing the applications. The group, called the Great Basin Water Network, includes a broad group of people opposed to the plan.

Eastern Nevada rancher Dean Baker also asked Ricci to adjudicate existing vested water rights before granting new permits because of the effect they could have on existing water users.

The group also wants the state engineer to reopen the protest period dating back to 1989 to allow more people to join.

Ricci said if some of the original protesters come forward at a future date, their involvement will be decided at that time.

Susan Lynn, executive director of the network, said desalination, more Colorado River water and improved conservation are better long-term solutions to Southern Nevada's water needs.

"This is not in the public interest," she said of the pipeline project. "It will seriously harm rural Nevada."