One of the Nevada valley basins the Southern Nevada Water Authority seeks to pump water from is in Lincoln County, the southeast corner of the state, home to a number of state parks, including Cathedral Gorge (pictured). Las Vegas depends on Colorado River water for its survival, but the river has suffered a decade of drought and "the worst consecutive years of inflow in the last 100 years," according to Lower Colorado Regional Director Terry Fulp. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation made public in August 2013 that for the first time it slowed the flow of water from the Lake Powell Reservoir (upstream of the Grand Canyon) to the Lake Mead Reservoir, which supplies almost all of Las Vegas' water.

Back in 2012, the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) proposed to pump water in from Lincoln and White Pine counties via pipelines. Following extensive hearings, state engineer Jason King approved the plan to pump 84,000 acre feet of water from rural Nevada to serve Las Vegas, a mind boggling 27,371,484,000 gallons.

On Dec. 10, however, Senior District Judge Robert Estes put a halt to the SNWA plan when he ruled the state engineer must recalculate how much water the authority can pump from the proposed four valley basins without draining them and usurping water rights. Estes asserted the state hasn't defined the impact of pumping such large amounts of water from the basins, and further avers it would "prevent the basin from reaching equilibrium even after 200 years." Estes said the original plan is "likely the largest interbasin transfer of water in U.S. history," but termed the state engineer's decision, in part, as "arbitrary and capricious."

The judge also deemed the plan's mitigation efforts "flawed," saying there was "no objective standard to determine when mitigation efforts will be eliminated and implemented."

The SNWA will likely appeal Estes' decision to the Nevada Supreme Court. A previous state plan to draw water from Lincoln County was struck down by the district court in October 2009. The Nevada Supreme Court denied an appeal of that decision.

SNWA officials told the local media the judge's decision "did not disturb the bulk of the state engineer's finding, including the determination that the applied water is needed by the people of Southern Nevada, who rely almost exclusively on the drought-stricken Colorado River for their water supply." In a statement, SNWA said it is confident the state engineer can supply the additional data the judge requested.