"This is where we want the feds to stick with us," said Ward, senior policy analyst on public lands and natural resource management. "We think this is really a time not to follow the pattern in other valleys."

Ward said his group would like to see the BLM in Utah take a more active role on the Snake Valley issue, which he noted could harm federal lands on the Utah side if the area dries up. "They need to be more proactive and less passive," he said.

Elected officials from Salt Lake, Juab, Millard, Tooele and Utah counties in September sent a letter to Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., expressing their concerns that a dried-up Snake Valley would seriously impact air quality along the Wasatch Front as dust blows in from the west.

More recently, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agreed to a petition by the Center for Biological Diversity to take a year and examine habitat concerns in the Utah portion of the Snake Valley for a fish known as the least chub. If the agency decides at the end of the study that the fish deserves federal protection as an endangered species, it would add another wrinkle to the Water Authority's plan.

"Everybody's goal, and we support that goal, is that the habitat be protected," Water Authority spokesman J.C. Davis said last month. Federal protection for the least chub, he noted, would not be a deal-killer for his agency's proposal.

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E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com