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Authority To Appeal Key Las Vegas Pipeline Water Rights Ruling

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Water officials aren't giving up a nearly 30-year effort to get state approval to pump groundwater from arid valleys just west of the Utah state line and pipe it to faucets and fountains in Las Vegas.

Southern Nevada Water Authority board members voted Thursday to appeal a decision by Nevada's top state water official last month to deny key groundwater use rights in vast rural parts of Lincoln and White Pine counties.

The water authority in Las Vegas started staking water rights in 1989 in the sparsely populated Spring, Cave, Dry Lake and Delamar valleys.

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Officials say the pump-and-pipeline project could cost billions of dollars, but that it might become essential if drought continues to shrink Lake Mead.

The Colorado River reservoir provides almost all of Las Vegas' water.