This Act changes the boundary of the Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area and allows a water authority to get rights-of-way for a water pipeline and related facilities. The official map reference is changed to a map titled "Proposed Sloan Canyon Expansion" dated May 20, 2024. The conservation area size listed in the law is changed from 48,438 acres to 57,728 acres. The Secretary of the Interior, through the Bureau of Land Management, must grant the Southern Nevada Water Authority temporary and permanent rights-of-way (outside the Conservation Area boundary) within one year of the law’s enactment. Those rights-of-way are for geotechnical investigations and for constructing and operating water transmission and related facilities. The Authority may excavate and use or dispose of sand, gravel, minerals, or other materials from tunneling needed for the pipeline without paying for those materials. The Secretary and the Authority must sign a memorandum of understanding within 30 days after the rights-of-way are granted to identify federal land where materials may be disposed of to further BLM interests. Rights-of-way are subject to terms and conditions the Secretary may set consistent with Federal Land Policy and Management Act requirements. The law requires that pipeline construction not permanently adversely affect surface resources in the Conservation Area and forbids placing rights-of-way through or under areas designated as wilderness. The boundary expansion is subject to valid existing rights, including any designated utility transmission corridors or transmission line rights-of-way approved before enactment, and does not stop operation or maintenance of existing authorized utility facilities. The Secretary may authorize new utility facility rights-of-way within existing corridors following the National Environmental Policy Act and other applicable laws. Except for these changes, the law does not change how the Conservation Area is managed under prior law. The Act was approved on May 19, 2026.
No publicly available information on overall costs or funding is included in the text. The Act states that the rights-of-way granted to the Southern Nevada Water Authority are not subject to the payment of rents or other charges. No cost estimates, appropriations, or budget effects are provided in the bill text.
No publicly available information.
No publicly available information.