A new study by the U.S. Geological Survey about aquifers that would be impacted by a Las Vegas water project is raising a new concern: Should Utahns far from the border with that state worry about groundwater loss?

The report to Congress, released Saturday, is titled "Water Resources of the Basin and Range Carbonate-Rock Aquifer System, White Pine County, Nevada, and Adjacent Areas in Nevada and Utah — Draft Report." Comments will be accepted on the report for 60 days starting last Saturday.

The issue of how much water is needed to sustain the environment and ranches of western Utah is a critical one, since a groundwater project proposed by the Southern Nevada Water Authority would pump water from the underground aquifer of Snake Valley, which is in both Utah and Nevada. The water would be piped to the Las Vegas area.

Snake Valley would provide as much as 25,000 acre-feet. Another project that is part of the overall plan, the Spring Valley Project, entirely in Nevada, would take another 91,000 acre-feet.

The study area takes in most of White Pine County, Nev., and parts of Elko, Eureka, Nye and Lincoln counties in that state. In Utah, it includes parts of Tooele, Millard, Beaver, Juab and Iron counties.

The report concludes that a lot of water beyond what is needed to recharge the regional aquifer flows from the mountains and into the groundwater. It concludes that for the whole region of several basins, the annual "runoff" not needed for recharge amounts to 586,000 acre-feet.

That seems to leave a huge amount of water available for the tapping. For the Snake Valley aquifer, the yearly "runoff" beyond what is needed to recharge the underground water is calculated at 126,000 acre-feet on an average based on weather from 1970 through 2004. In the longer term, 1895-2006, when water was scarcer, the "runoff" was 115,000 acre-feet, according to the report.

To some, the finding is peculiar, since much of western Utah is sagebrush desert.

"At the same time they're saying there's more water, it's still a case of springs drying up and streams way below their normal capacity," said Ken Hill, a resident of Partoun, Juab County, who is a member of the Great Basin Water Network.

He and other network members fear that any large-scale pumping of the shared aquifer could have bad consequences both in Utah and Nevada.

Hydrologists working with the network will undoubtedly take a close look at the new report, he said.

Another point the study makes is that hydrologic basins are tied together. "We knew they were interconnected, but not to the degree that they were finding. There's way more interconnectedness and flow," Hill added.