Trump OKs $2B water pipeline under Sloan Canyon conservation area

President Donald Trump signed a bill into law Tuesday that will allow water managers to build a $2 billion pipeline under a national conservation area.

The Sloan Canyon Conservation and Lateral Water Pipeline Act was championed in Congress by Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and Rep. Dina Titus, both Democrats. Ultimately, the pipeline will meet growing service demands in Henderson and southwest Las Vegas and ensure that water service can continue should an older pipeline need repairs.

“In Las Vegas, nearly three million people all currently rely on just one pipeline,” Cortez Masto said. “That’s a dangerous situation in which one system failure could cut off the water supply for close to 40 percent of Las Vegas residents and businesses. This law will increase the reliability of Southern Nevada’s water supply for generations to come.”

The costly, massive construction project is a response to the aging existing South Valley Lateral pipeline, which was constructed in 1996 and supplies about 40 percent of the valley’s water. It will be wide enough to drive a Ford F-150 pickup truck through, Southern Nevada Water Authority deputy general manager Doa Ross said in an interview last February.

The other possible route for the pipeline could have caused major construction-related disruptions to main roads in Henderson such as St. Rose Parkway, according to Southern Nevada water managers.

“We heard very strongly — and so did our electeds — from the community residents, parks, the businesses. All of these people in the northern alignment, they would really rather not see it happen,” Ross said at the time.

Adding acreage to conservation area

In addition to allowing the water authority to build the pipeline, the law adds 9,280 acres to the 48,438-acre Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area. Striking that balance between altering the environment and conserving more of it was important, Titus said.

“It will protect and enhance water access for Southern Nevada residents and businesses while preserving more of the unique habitat and cultural history of Sloan Canyon,” Titus said in a statement.

Some environmentalists raised eyebrows when they heard of the plan to drill under the national conservation area, which is home to wildlife like the federally threatened desert tortoise, kit foxes and more.

One of the access points to the ground would be near the Petroglyph Canyon Trailhead, close to where a permanent visitors center was being constructed, Friends of Sloan Canyon president Ron Safran previously told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Petroglyphs are ancient rock carvings left by Native Americans.

The water authority has said it will attempt to minimize disruptions to recreation and that most construction will occur underground.

The tunneling of the project and certain interconnections will still require federal permitting and environmental review, which includes opportunities for public comment.