Residents of Utah's western desert received a political boost in their fight to prevent a large portion of the region's groundwater from being piped to Las Vegas.

The Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Interim Committee approved a resolution Wednesday that encourages more local involvement in the discussions with Nevada. The resolution also calls for a delay of any final decisions until scientific studies about the impact of removing the water from the aquifers are completed.

"We have an important resource out in the west desert," said Rep. Richard Wheeler, R-Ephraim, who sponsored the resolution. "And we have people's lives, their livelihoods, at stake."

The focus of the resolution is a proposal by Nevada officials to pipe up to 176,000 acre feet of water from five aquifers in the region to Las Vegas. One of the aquifers, which is located in the Snake Valley and straddles the Utah-Nevada state line, could supply up to 25,000 acre feet of water.

The sparsely populated valley is used for ranching by mostly Utah residents. Because of that, Utah officials have been negotiating to maintain the existing aquifer in the valley.

The problem is that the water that feeds into the valley comes from mountains in Nevada. Boyd Clayton of the Utah Division of Water Rights said that the negotiations with Nevada officials are working to find a system that will not turn the water into a resource that is being sold before it can reach the Snake Valley.

"In Utah, we're not mining groundwater, and we're keen about making sure that doesn't happen" in Nevada, Clayton said.

Nevada activists have filed suit in that state to put the brakes ont the approval process and allow more time for public input.

Residents of the area, some of whom were in attendance at the committee hearing, would also like more involvement in the process. Ken Hill, who lives in Partoun, Juab County, said that even if they are not in the room during negotiations, they would like somebody who is at least kept in the loop.

More importantly, he said that the resolution — even though it is only approved by a committee and will probably not receive approval of the full Legislature until the next general session — still provides Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and other Utah officials with some needed support.

"It's encouraging, and we're hoping that it will give the governor some political elbow to do what he knows is right," Hill said.

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