Nevada water authority must relinquish water rights

For the time being, the Southern Nevada Water Authority will have to relinquish the water rights that the agency had obtained in four eastern Nevada valleys for a pipeline to Las Vegas, State Engineer Jason King said Wednesday. The action stems from a June 17 opinion by the Nevada Supreme Court, he said. The court ruled the state engineer must re-notice the applications and reopen the protest period in the aftermath of a case that challenged the validity of the groundwater applications underpinning the multibillion-dollar project. "We are just now letting the water world in Nevada know how we interpreted that decision," King said late Wednesday from Carson City. He issued a two-page response to inquiries received by his office after the Supreme Court ruling. The response said that "water rights issued to the Southern Nevada Water Authority under the 1989 applications in Spring Valley, Cave Valley, Dry Lake Valley and Delamar Valley will revert to application status." King said he will re-notice the applications and hold hearings on them. He will have a year after the two-month protest period to make a decision on each of the district's some 20 applications...more

Maybe King can't handle this, but Dave Houston could.