For four days, Las Vegas water managers have testified about their plans to pipe billions of gallons of water a year out of White Pine County's Spring Valley.

On Friday, opponents of the $2 billion pipeline project got their turn, and not all of the criticism came from the wet end of the straw.

Several Las Vegas residents attacked the water authority's plans, including two women who were overcome with emotion as they spoke before the panel of state regulators that will decide how much water, if any, can be safely removed from Spring Valley.

Criticism from Southern Nevada mostly focused on how the pipeline would feed more growth in a community already reeling from the impacts of expansion.

Kenya Pierce fought back tears as she talked about her children, ages 3 and 6, living in a city without adequate schools, hospitals and social services.

"Why do we continue to see growth in Southern Nevada as a necessity?" Pierce said. "As my elders used to tell me, 'Everything that's good ain't good for you.'"

Before she began to cry, Turessa Russell asked why she hasn't heard "anything about growth restrictions" in Las Vegas. "When is it going to stop?"

Kyle Barber, a Henderson resident and activist with the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, put it another way: "I'm here to tell you that the people of Las Vegas are sick and tired of dealing with the negative impacts of growth," he said. "They know that this project will only make things worse."

About 80 people spoke during the public input session, which lasted almost seven hours and included comments delivered in Las Vegas, Carson City and the White Pine County communities of Ely and Baker.

All of the almost 40 people who spoke from White Pine County said they opposed the pipeline, which they warned would dry up Spring Valley and destroy the area's economy and ecology.

There were repeated references made to Owens Valley, the Eastern California watershed laid to waste nearly a century ago after a massive water grab by the city of Los Angeles. The comparisons began with the first speaker of the day, Reno resident Jerry Purdy.

"Will the state of Nevada and federal regulators allow the same thing to happen to the counties in Eastern Nevada? Sadly, I think all the indications are you're darn right they will," Purdy said.

Kristi Fillman lives and works at the western edge of Spring Valley. She cried as she used the timeline of events in Owens Valley to predict White Pine County's future.

"The valleys will turn into dust bowls. It's inevitable," she said from Ely.

Representatives from several American Indian tribes also spoke. Members of the Goshute Tribe, which considers Spring Valley part of its aboriginal territory, brought signs with them to Ely that read "Take our water, take our life" and "Find a solution that will not ruin our homeland."

The public input came as part of a state hearing on 19 applications for groundwater in Spring Valley, where the Southern Nevada Water Authority hopes to tap as much as 91,000 acre-feet of water a year.

The state will accept written comments on the project through Nov. 3.

State Engineer Tracy Taylor, who heads up the Nevada Division of Water Resources, is expected to rule on the water authority's applications some time next year.

Las Vegas environmentalist John Hiatt said Taylor's review would involve a potentially tricky determination of whether the project is in the public interest.

"The key question will be: Which part of the 'public' has the most pressing interest? Those people who don't yet live in Nevada or are not yet born, or those who are already here?" Hiatt said.

He urged the state to "go slow and not make any irreversible decisions."

Most of the public input from Las Vegas on Friday came in the form of testimonials from gaming executives, developers, union heads and tourism officials who said the development of the pipeline is crucial to the continued prosperity of Southern Nevada and the state as a whole.

Many of the business leaders who spoke were encouraged to attend by the water authority, and several of them expressed their support for the project using some of the same scripted language.

Three people who spoke in favor of the pipeline from Carson City had their plane tickets paid for by the water authority.

"We felt it was important for them to deliver their comments to the hearing officer and the state engineer in person," said water authority spokesman Roger Buehrer.

Water authority General Manager Pat Mulroy has said that without water from Spring Valley and elsewhere in rural Clark, Lincoln and White Pine counties, Southern Nevada could exhaust its water supply within a decade.

If developed as planned, the pipeline project could supply enough water for half a million homes or more.

The hearing on the authority's Spring Valley applications is tentatively slated to end on Sept. 25.