Christina Roessler, an independent contractor hired by Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, presented a report Tuesday critical of the Southern Nevada Water Authority's effort to import water from White Pine County into Southern Nevada. Photo by John Gurzinski.

Organizers of two water conservation groups Tuesday released reports critical of the Southern Nevada Water Authority that compared water trends in the Las Vegas Valley with those in two other Southwest cities.

The Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada and Western Resources Advocates also criticized the water authority's plan to build a pipeline to import water from central Nevada to Las Vegas.

"The Southern Nevada Water Authority has dominated this debate for far too long," PLAN Director Bob Fulkerson said.

Fulkerson and others compared the Las Vegas Valley with Tucson, Ariz., and with Albuquerque, N.M., two Southwest cities with less than half the population of the valley.

The study by Western Resource Advocates, "Water in the Urban Southwest," found that single-family homes in Las Vegas are less efficient than those in Tucson or Albuquerque.

Western Resource Advocates is a nonprofit with offices in Colorado and Utah.

PLAN released a report critical of the water district's effort to import water from White Pine County near the border with Utah that said Southern Nevada should concentrate on conservation efforts instead.

Christina Roessler, a contractor hired by PLAN to study the project, said the specifics of the project were vague, including how much it would cost.

But J.C. Davis, a spokesman for the Southern Nevada Water Authority, said Southern Nevadans had the right to use the more than hundreds of thousands of unused acre-feet of water in White Pine County.

"If we didn't have another body move into this valley, we would still need to secure our in-state resources," Davis said.

He said the project, which would involve hundreds of miles of pipeline and several treatment plants, would not cost more than $3.6 billion, or more than $2 per month per household.

The Nevada Department of Conservation and Water Resources has yet to approve the water rights, Davis said.

If the state approves it, the federal government will examine the project and take into account the effect on wildlife and the aquifers themselves, which hold millions of gallons of water, Davis said.

He also said criticisms of the conservation efforts of Las Vegans were unfair.

The water authority has not allowed new homes to have turf in front yards, and only half of backyard landscaping can be grass.

He said the water authority has managed to pull up more than 75 million feet of turf in a rebate program to replace the areas with desert landscaping.

Western Resource Advocates said the water authority should adopt a steeper tiered pricing scale similar to Tucson's, which increases dramatically as the consumer uses more water. They said the city has seen rate increases deter water use.

Davis said rate increases are part of the equation but can hurt people on fixed incomes.

Educating the community, as the water authority plans to do with a million-dollar ad campaign that will roll out next week, is an area that needs more attention, he said.

Davis said the valley has become more water-efficient in recent years and is moving toward Tucson-like levels of per-houshold water consumption.

"I think that we are definitely moving in that direction," Davis said. "By and large, our residents are very supportive of water conservation."