The legal geography of prior appropriation water rights: Political ecology and the defeat of the Las Vegas Pipeline

Abstract

As the Western United States becomes increasingly arid from climate change, cities across the region are finding new ways to increase and conserve water resources. Some municipalities have proposed implementing rural-to-urban water transfers to augment urban water supplies. This was the case in Las Vegas, Nevada, where the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) proposed the Groundwater Development Project–informally known as the Las Vegas Pipeline–which sought to pump groundwater from eastern Nevada, transporting it 300 miles south to Las Vegas. In this article, I explore how SNWA’s pipeline project was contested by the environmental nonprofit organization the Great Basin Water Network (GBWN), a grassroots coalition of ranchers, environmentalists, and tribal members. Highlighting how GBWN successfully used water law based on the doctrine of prior appropriation–discursively, in practice, and as a legal strategy–I illustrate how SNWA’s project was defeated in March of 2020, after decades of activism and litigation. Drawing from legal geography and political ecology, this article illustrates how structure (in the form of law), and agency (in the form of activism), converge to affect legal outcomes over water resources and conflict in the Western U.S. Last, by highlighting the adverse effects of rural-to-urban water transfers, this essay contributes to discussions about more equitable forms of water governance between rural and urban governments, while offering insights into water rights based on private property by critically examining the doctrine of prior appropriation.